Australia's revised offshore acreage release system reaches a landmark on Nov. 27, 1997. That Thursday is the first closing date for bidding in Australia's 1997 Release of Vacant Offshore Petroleum Exploration Areas.
Bidding is by a work program system. The aresa offered in releases comprise one or more 5 min by 5 min graticular blocks. To assist explorers' evaluation schedules, the 34 areas in the 1997 release were split into two groups: bidding for 15 areas closes this month, while bidding for the remaining 19 areas, all on the Northwest Shelf, closes Mar.26, 1998 (Fig.1 [68,500 bytes],Fig. 2 [83,790 bytes]).
The 1997 release was announced in April 1997. Feedback so far from industry has been favorable to the new arrangements.
Bidding for areas released in 1996 was strong, with interest shown tn the southwestern and southeastern offshore Australia as well as the Northwest Shelf.
The results have confirmed that the range of areas offered allowed scope for successful bidding by both small and large companies, with the winning work programs ranging from new seismic acquisition only to 3D seismic plus multiwell programs in the guaranteed terms. The bidding also resulted in areas being offered to new players on the Australian exploration scene.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
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