Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane announced the award of nine new permits located in Commonwealth waters offshore Western Australia, Victoria, and the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands as part of round one of the Australian government’s 2013 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release.
Macfarlane stated he is “pleased to see the continuing exploration of Australia’s offshore petroleum sector,” stating the permits will “see more than AU$372million in exploration investment over the next six years.”
“This demonstrates the importance of putting in place a policy framework to ensure Australia remains a strong and attractive investment destination,” he commented.
“I look forward to working with the petroleum industry to maintain exploration investment in Australia. Australia’s energy future is enhanced by the efficient exploration of our sedimentary basins.”
The permits are all located off Western Australia state, except for the first two listed:
VIC/P69 (released as V13-1, Vulcan sub-basin): offshore Victoria in the Otway basin, has been awarded to Origin Energy Resources. Origin proposed a work program of 1500km 2D seismic reprocessing, geological and geophysical studies, acquisition of a new, 517sq km 3D seismic survey, and seismic interpretation and prospect assessment totaling over $16.55million. The secondary work program consists of geological and geophysical studies, including maturing a drilling candidate and one exploration well totaling $31.9million. There were no other bids for this area.
AC/P57 (released as AC13-4, Vulcan sub-basin): offshore the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands in the Bonaparte basin in the Timor Sea, has been awarded to Murphy Australia Oil and Mitsui E&P Australia. The joint venture proposed a work program of 114sq km 3D seismic reprocessing, geological and geophysical interpretation of data sets, and 335sq km 3D PTSM seismic reprocessing and amplitude-vs-offset (AVO) studies totaling $1.15million. The secondary work program consists of well planning, geological and geophysical interpretation of data sets, one exploration well, and post-well geotechnical studies totaling over $60.3million. There was one other bidder for this area.
WA-497-P (released as W13-18, Exmouth sub-basin): offshore Western Australia, about 75km west of Onslow, has been awarded to AWE Australia. AWE proposed a work program of 387sq km 3D seismic reprocessing, HCA04A 3D seismic survey, 339sq km 3D seismic reprocessing, west Gorgon 3D seismic survey, 250km 2D seismic reprocessing, geological and geophysical studies, and 400sq km 3D seismic inversion totaling $1.5million. The secondary work program consists of geological and geotechnical studies, and two exploration wells totaling $40.2million. There was one other bid on this area.
WA-498-P (released as W13-10, Dampier sub-basin): offshore Western Australia, about 163km north of Karratha, has been awarded to Santos Offshore and JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration (Australia). The joint venture proposed a work program of 80sq km 3D seismic reprocessing, geological and geophysical studies, including controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) sensitivity studies, and charge and migration modelling and prospect assessment totaling $385,000. The secondary work program consists of a new CSEM survey, geological and geophysical studies, and one exploration well totaling $28.3million. There were no other bids on this area.
WA-499-P (released as W13-13, Dampier sub-basin): offshore Western Australia, about 160 km north-northwest of Onslow, has been awarded to Apache Northwest. Apache proposed a work program of 890sq km new broadband 3D seismic data and PSDM processing, geotechnical studies, rock physics/quantitative interpretation and 3D seismic inversion studies, and one exploration well totaling $20.4million. The secondary work program consists of a 650sq km new broadband 3D seismic survey, PSDM processing, and geotechnical studies totaling $6.4million. There were five other bids for this area.
WA-500-P (released as W13-9, Exmouth plateau): offshore Western Australia, about 190km northwest of Dampier, has been awarded to Finder No 7. Finder proposed a work program of geological and geophysical studies, license/acquisition of 1200sq km new/reprocessed 3D PSDM seismic data, and 210km of new 2D seismic data totaling $2.2million. The secondary work program consists of 500sq km 3D QI/reservoir characterization, geological and geophysical studies, and one exploration well totaling $30.5 MM. There were no other bids on this area.
WA-501-P (released as W13-12, Dampier sub-basin): offshore Western Australia, about 80km northwest of Dampier, has been awarded to Carnarvon Petroleum. Carnarvon proposed a work program of collating and interpreting all open file seismic data, 80sq km pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) 3D seismic reprocessing, biostratigraphy and reservoir studies, interpretation of reprocessed seismic data, and petrophysical studies totaling $270,000. The secondary work program consists of geological and geophysical studies, and one exploration well totaling $20.12million. There were no other bids on this area.
WA-502-P (released as W13-2, Caswell sub-basin): offshore Western Australia, has been awarded to Santos Browse and Inpex Browse E&P. The joint venture proposed a work program of 496.9km license Caswell multi-client 3D seismic data, geophysical and geological studies, and updating a depositional model with regional data totaling $7.1 MM. The secondary work program consists of one exploration well, geophysical and geological studies, including integrating well data and updating prospect mapping, and commercial studies totaling $80.6 MM. There were two other bids for this area.
WA-503-P (released as W13-11, Dampier sub-basin): offshore Western Australia, approximately 90km north of Dampier, in the northern Carnarvon basin, has been awarded to Neon Energy. Neon proposed a work program of 80sq km broadband 3D seismic, geological and geophysical studies, including seismic interpretation, QI analysis and AVO studies, and prospect assessment and well planning totaling $1.55million. The secondary work program consists of one exploration well, and geological and petrophysical studies, including post-well analysis, totaling $23million. There were no others bids for this area.
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