Norway’s Statoil ASA has been awarded an exploration permit on the Exmouth plateau offshore Western Australia.
The 13,000-sq-km WA-506-P permit lies 300 km offshore 150 km west of Io-Jansz gas fields that are part of the Chevron Corp.-ExxonMobil Corp. group’s Gorgon LNG development.
Water depths in the region vary from 1,500 m to 2,000 m.
Statoil has pledged to acquire 2,000 km of 2D and 3,500 sq km of 3D seismic during the next 3 years.
The company has interests in some onshore Northern Territory acreage, but this is its first entry offshore Australia.
The permit is held 100% at this stage.