Australia Announces 2015 Offshore Acreage Release

The Australian government has offered 29 offshore areas for bidding through an annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release.

The areas are located across eight basins in Commonwealth waters in the offshore areas of the Northern Territory, the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Western Australia South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, Department of Industry and Science's entity Geoscience Australia announced Monday.

Out of 29 areas, 23 areas are available for work program bidding and six are available for cash bidding.

“Release areas have been selected to offer the global petroleum exploration industry a variety of investment opportunities. Areas are located in a range of water depths and vary in size and level of existing geological knowledge. All release areas are supported by pre-competitive geological and geophysical data and analysis undertaken by Geoscience Australia, and information on third party rights or other considerations that may impact upon future petroleum activities in a release area,” Geoscience Australia said.