Opportunities for offshore petroleum exploration in 2014: but explorers will need deep pockets

摘要

The Minister for Industry, the Hon. Ian Macfarlane MP, is scheduled to announce the 2014 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release (Acreage Release) at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) Conference in Perth in April 2014. In the meantime 15 areas are already available for bidding. These comprise the 2013 round 2 areas and re-releases of some 2012 areas. Twelve of these areas are situated where water depths are greater than 1000 m. This indicates the extent to which exploration is being encouraged in unexplored high-risk areas. Exploration in water depths greater than 1000 m is expensive enough, but if new gas or petroleum fields are found, the number of dollars needed to market the product will be in the billions of dollars.