Minister for Energy and Resources Peter Batchelor today announced the release of three new offshore petroleum exploration areas in the Gippsland Basin as part of the 2007 Joint Authority acreage release. The released offshore areas consist of three frontier blocks which cover the eastern most parts of the Gippsland Basin, and have only been explored sporadically.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Minister for Energy and Resources Peter Batchelor today announced the release of three new offshore petroleum exploration areas in the Gippsland Basin as part of the 2007 Joint Authority acreage release.
The released offshore areas consist of three frontier blocks which cover the eastern most parts of the Gippsland Basin, and have only been explored sporadically.
The Federal Government today announced 34 new exploration areas in Commonwealth waters around Australia, including the Victorian acreages.
Mr Batchelor said the release of the exploration areas was consistent with the Victorian-Commonwealth joint policy of encouraging new investment in petroleum exploration in Victoria's offshore areas and securing future energy supplies for Victoria.
“Since 2000, some $2 billion has been spent bringing oil and gas development projects into operation in Victoria. The industry is booming with a further $2 billion invested in bringing new oil and gas development projects into operation by the end of the decade,” Mr Batchelor said.
“This is in addition to a further $1.5 billion which has been spent since 2000 on gas pipelines extending to other states which has increased the gas market for Victorian resources.”
Area V07-1 lies on the shallow shelf ( water depths 20-200 m ) south of the State’s Three-Mile Zone; covered by limited modern seismic data and partly surrounds the retention lease ( VIC/RL3 ) around the Sole gas field.
The seismic coverage for areas V07-2 and V07-3 consists principally of older regional seismic vintage. In Area V07-2, water depths range principally between 70 and 200 m, while Area V07-3 is a deep water block located to the north of the Bass Canyon where water depths exceed 1,000 m.
Mr Batchelor said the three blocks were under-explored and detailed seismic data and additional drilling would be required before their potential can be assessed. Areas for petroleum exploration are released once a year for closed tenders on the first official day of the annual Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association ( APPEA ) Conference, being held this year in Adelaide. The release of new sites for exploration is under the Commonwealth Petroleum ( Submerged Lands ) Act 1967 work program bidding system.
Further information about the areas on offer and technical information packages can be obtained from Kathy Hill, Director GeoScience Victoria, via Jim Driscoll: jim.driscoll@dpi.vic.gov.au.
Related Content
Release Date
This story was released on 2007-04-17. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.