A petroleum geological overview of the 2013 offshore acreage release for petroleum exploration

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernecker
Keyword(s):  
Geophysical Data ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Open File ◽  
Work Program ◽  
The North ◽  
Data Coverage

The Australian Government formally releases new offshore exploration areas at the annual APPEA conference. The previous two releases were characterised by several large, gazetted areas in underexplored regions, a trend that is maintained this year with several frontier areas comprising more than 100 graticular blocks on offer. The recent uptake of new exploration permits in the Bight Basin, the offshore North Perth Basin, and the Roebuck Basin indicates a continuing strong industry interest in offshore frontier exploration. A total of 31 areas in 13 geological provinces are formally released in 2013, and work program bids are invited for two rounds closing on 21 November 2013, and 22 May 2014. Area gazettal was, again, well supported by industry nominations. The areas on offer are represented by an even mix of shallow and deepwater areas, as well as by areas close and distant to previous discoveries and producing fields. The Northern Carnarvon, Browse, and Bonaparte basins dominate new exploration opportunities in the 2013 release, while only four areas were gazetted in the North Perth, Otway, and Gippsland basins. These also deserve attention as they have exploration potential in underexplored parts of the basins and offer opportunities to test new play concepts. Data coverage varies from being excellent in more mature areas to sparse in underexplored areas such as the North Perth Basin. The Australian Government continues to assist offshore exploration activities by providing free access to a wealth of open-file geological and geophysical data.

Petroleum geological summary of the 2012 offshore acreage release for petroleum exploration

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernecker
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Offshore Area ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Gippsland Basin

The Australian Government formally releases new offshore exploration areas at the annual APPEA conference. In 2012, 27 areas in nine offshore basins are being released for work program bidding. Closing dates for bid submissions are either six or twelve months after the release date, i.e. 8 November 2012 or 9 May 2013, depending on the exploration status in these areas and on data availability. As was the case in 2011, this year’s Release again covers a total offshore area of about 200,000 km2. The Release Areas are located in Commonwealth waters offshore Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania (Fig. 1). Areas on the North West Shelf feature prominently again and include under-explored shallow water areas in the Arafura and Money Shoal basins and rank frontier deep water areas in the outer Browse and Roebuck basins as well as on the outer Exmouth Plateau. Following the recent uptake of exploration permits in the Bight Basin (Ceduna and Duntroon sub-basins), Australia’s southern margin is well represented in the 2012 Acreage Release. Three new areas in the Ceduna Sub-basin, four areas in the Otway Basin, one large area in the Sorell Basin and two areas in the eastern Gippsland Basin are on offer. Multiple industry nominations for this Acreage Release were received, confirming the healthy status of exploration activity in Australia. The Australian government continues to support these activities by providing free access to a wealth of geological and geophysical data.

2010 Offshore petroleum exploration release

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
John Hartwell
Keyword(s):  
Water Depth ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Geophysical Data ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Economic Environment ◽  
Geological Data ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Investment Opportunities ◽  
Offshore Petroleum

The sustainable annual release of quality petroleum exploration acreage, to provide the global petroleum exploration industry with a variety of investment opportunities in Australian waters, is a key objective of the Australian Government. The annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release (Acreage Release) is underpinned by Australia’s stable economic environment and well-established regulatory framework for offshore petroleum activities. The 2010 Acreage Release areas are located across five basins. Release areas have been carefully selected to offer a range of investment opportunities; areas vary in size, known prospectivity, water depth and level of existing geological data and knowledge. Areas are supported by pre-competitive geological and geophysical data and analysis undertaken by Geoscience Australia.

Geological overview of the 2011 offshore acreage release for petroleum exploration

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernecker
Keyword(s):  
Data Acquisition ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Release Date ◽  
Work Program ◽  
Year 2000

The Australian Government formally releases new offshore exploration areas at the annual APPEA conference. In 2011, 29 areas in eight offshore basins are being released for work program bidding. Closing dates for bid submissions are either six or 12 months after the release date (i.e. 13 October 2011 and 12 April 2012)–this depends on the exploration status in these areas and on data availability. The 2011 Release is the largest since the year 2000 with all 29 areas located in Commonwealth waters offshore NT, WA, Victoria and Tasmania, covering about 200,000 km2. The producing hydrocarbon provinces of the Carnarvon, Otway and Gippsland basins are represented by gazettal blocks that are located close to existing infrastructure and are supported by extensive open file data-sets. Other areas that are close to known oil and gas discoveries lie in the Caswell Sub-basin (eastern Browse Basin) and on the Ashmore Platform (northwestern Bonaparte Basin). A particular aspect of the 2011 release is provided by 13 areas in under-explored regions offshore NT and WA–all of which range from 100–280 graticular blocks in size. These areas, located in the Money Shoal, outer Browse, Roebuck, northeastern Carnarvon, Southern Carnarvon and North Perth basins, offer new opportunities for data-acquisition and regional exploration. The release of three large areas in the Southern Carnarvon and North Perth basins is supported by new data acquired and interpreted by Geoscience Australia as part of the Offshore Energy Security Program, which selected results are being presented at this year’s conference.

Petroleum geology of the 2018 offshore acreage release areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 437
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernecker ◽  
George Bernardel ◽  
Claire Orlov ◽  
Nadège Rollet
Keyword(s):  
Information Management System ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
North West ◽  
Work Program ◽  
Petroleum Systems ◽  
The North ◽  
Well Data ◽  
Offshore Petroleum

A total of 21 areas were released in 2018 for offshore petroleum exploration. They are located in the Bonaparte, Browse, Northern Carnarvon, Bight, Otway and Gippsland basins. All release areas were supported by industry nominations, indicating that interest in exploring Australia’s offshore basins remains strong, despite the significant decrease in the number of exploration wells drilled in recent years. Sixteen areas are being released under the work program bidding system with two rounds, one closing on 18 October 2018 and the other on 21 March 2019. Five areas are being released for cash bidding and include the producible La Bella gas accumulation in the Otway Basin. Prequalification for participation in the cash-bid auction closes on 4 October 2018 with the auction scheduled for 7 February 2019. Geoscience Australia continues to support industry activities by acquiring, interpreting and integrating pre-competitive datasets that are made freely available as part of the agency’s regional petroleum geological studies. The regional evaluation of the petroleum systems in the Browse Basin has been completed and work continues on assessing the distribution of Early Triassic source rocks and related petroleum occurrences across the North West Shelf. A wealth of seismic and well data, submitted under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006, are made available through the National Offshore Petroleum Information Management System. Additional datasets are accessible through Geoscience Australia’s data repository.

Arctic meteorological operations and counter-operations during world War II

Polar Record ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 21 (135) ◽  
pp. 559-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Selinger ◽  
Alexander Glen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Free Access ◽  
World War ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Northern Atlantic ◽  
Northern Atlantic Ocean

By autumn 1940 the first round of fighting in World War II was over. In northern Europe, German forces occupied Poland, Norway and Denmark. Both sides recognized that further operations demanded naval and air superiority in northern waters. Germany needed free access to the Atlantic Ocean through the North Sea; Britain had to prevent that access, which threatened the lifeline to the United States. More than ever before, it became essential for both sides to have meteorological information from the northern Atlantic Ocean area. Germany's need was especially acute, for the routes for her shipping from ports in Scandinavia traversed enemy-patrolled waters, where foul weather was essential for evasion.

THE ROLE OF AMPLITUDE VERSUS OFFSET TECHNOLOGY IN PROMOTING OFFSHORE PETROLEUM EXPLORATION IN AUSTRALIA

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 163 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Williamson ◽  
F. Kroh
Keyword(s):  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
North West ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Exmouth Plateau ◽  
The North ◽  
Amplitude Versus Offset ◽  
Cable Lines ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Amplitude Versus

Amplitude versus offset (AVO) technology has proved itself useful in petroleum exploration in various parts of the world, particularly for gas exploration. To determine if modern AVO compliant processing could identify potential anomalies for exploration of open acreage offshore Australia, Geoscience Australia reprocessed parts of four publicly available long cable lines. These lines cover two 2006 acreage release areas on the Exmouth Plateau and in the Browse Basin on the North West Shelf. An earlier study has also been done on two publicly available long cable lines from Geoscience Australia’s Bremer Basin study and cover areas from the 2005 frontier acreage release on the southern margin. The preliminary results from these three reprocessing efforts produced AVO anomalies and were made publicly available to assist companies interested in assessing the acreage. The results of the studies and associated data are available from Geoscience Australia at the cost of transfer.The AVO data from the Exmouth Plateau show AVO anomalies including one that appears to be at the Jurassic level of the reservoir in the Jansz/Io supergiant gas field in adjacent acreage to the north. The AVO data from the Caswell Sub-basin of the Browse Basin show an AVO anomaly at or near the stratigraphic zone of the Brecknock South–1 gas discovery to the north. The geological settings of strata possibly relating to two AVO anomalies in the undrilled Bremer Basin are in the Early Cretaceous section, where lacustrine sandstones are known to occur. The AVO anomalies from the three studies are kilometres in length along the seismic lines.These preliminary results from Geoscience Australiaand other AVO work that has been carried out by industry show promise that AVO compliant processing has value—particularly for gas exploration offshore Australia—and that publicly available long-cable data can be suitable for AVO analysis.

SELECTING THE WINNING BID

2002 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 523
Author(s):  
E. Alexander ◽  
J. Morton
Keyword(s):  
Scoring System ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
3D Seismic ◽  
Management Philosophy ◽  
Work Program ◽  
Single Target ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
Selection Of

Work program bidding is established as the favoured method of allocating petroleum exploration tenements in offshore Australian waters and most of onshore Australia. However, the selection of winning bids can be complicated by the ranking of 2D versus 3D seismic, seismic versus drilling, program timing issues etc. On occasion the selection of the winning bids has been contentious. This paper summarises the process developed by the Petroleum Group in South Australia to select the winning work program bids for prospective onshore blocks for which bids have been gazetted. No other Australian jurisdiction has yet publicly released their detailed bid assessment processes.Onshore acreage releases with work program bidding have been used in South Australia since the 1980s by Petroleum Group to:focus industry onto specific prospective areas of the State (e.g. the Cooper Basin post expiry of PELs 5 and 6 in 1999); maximise exploration commitments; and achieve competition policy.The South Australian Petroleum Act 2000 allows cash or work program bidding to be used depending on the acreage. Acreage releases are announced by Ministerial press release. Associated clear bid assessment criteria are published together with promotional material to aid applicants. The date and time for close of bidding are also established, usually allowing a 6–9 month acreage evaluation period, the timeframe depending on the volume of data involved, i.e. the exploration maturity of the area.Applications received as a result of a gazettal process (i.e. competing bids) are assessed by a process designed to ensure probity and to achieve the over-arching aim of the bidding process i.e. the suitability of the applicants proposed work program for evaluating the prospectivity of the licence area and discovering petroleum.A scoring system has been developed which establishes, for each bid what is effectively a risked net present value in well equivalents. In this system, guaranteed work scores higher than non-guaranteed work; early work scores higher than later work; wells with multiple targets are scored higher than single target wells; 2D and 3D seismic and other exploration activity is converted into well equivalents; and loading of the later, non-guaranteed years of work programs are heavily discounted.The scoring system may also take into account differences in the amount and density of exploration data and minor variations may be made to the system to take this into account. It is intended that details of the scoring system to be used in bid assessment will be published each time bids are sought to ensure transparency and a level playing field.Comparisons are made with acreage management philosophy and processes used by other regulatory regimes in Australia and internationally.

Review of the 2009 offshore petroleum exploration release areas

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 465
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernecker
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Release Date ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Release Area ◽  
Block Sizes

The Australian Government formally releases new offshore exploration areas at the annual APPEA conference. This year, 31 areas plus two special areas in five offshore basins are being released for work program bidding. Closing dates for bid submissions are either six or twelve months after the release date (i.e. 3 December 2009 and 29 April 2010), depending on the exploration status in these areas is and on data availability. The 2009 release areas are located in Commonwealth waters offshore Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, comprising intensively explored areas close to existing production as well as new frontiers. As usual, the North West Shelf features very prominently and is complimented by new areas along the southern margin, including frontier exploration areas in the Ceduna Sub-basin (Bight Basin) and the Otway Basin. The Bonaparte Basin is represented by one release area in the Malita Graben, while five areas are available in the Southern Browse Basin in an under-explored area of the basin. A total of 14 areas are being released in the Carnarvon Basin, with eight areas located in the Dampier Sub-basin, three small blocks in the Rankin Platform and three large blocks on the Northern Exmouth Plateau (these are considered a deep water frontier). In the south, six large areas are on offer in the Ceduna Sub-basin and five areas of varying sizes are being released in the Otway Basin, including a deep water frontier offshore Victoria. The special release areas are located in the Petrel Sub-basin, Bonaparte Basin offshore Northern Territory, and encompass the Turtle/Barnett oil discoveries. The 2009 offshore acreage release offers a wide variety of block sizes in shallow as well as deep water environments. Area selection has been undertaken in consultation with industry, the states and Territory. This year’s acreage release caters for the whole gamut of exploration companies given that many areas are close to existing infrastructure while others are located in frontier offshore regions. As part of Geoscience Australia’s Offshore Energy Security Program, new data has been acquired in offshore frontier regions and have yielded encouraging insights into the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Ceduna-Sub-basin.

OFFSHORE PETROLEUM EXPLORATION IN AUSTRALIA ACREAGE BIDDING SYSTEMS: WORK BIDDING OR CASH BIDDING?

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 677
Author(s):  
A.G. Thompson ◽  
V.W.C. Lok
Keyword(s):  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Approval Process ◽  
Administrative Discretion ◽  
Administrative Cost ◽  
Natural Justice ◽  
Work Program ◽  
Mixed Regime ◽  
Discretionary Powers ◽  
Exploration And Development ◽  
Offshore Petroleum

The design and efficiency of offshore petroleum acreage bidding systems bear directly on the risk and cost for participants investing in exploration and development projects offshore Australia.Companies, financiers and investors who are interested in investing in petroleum exploration and development activities will find a mixed regime of State and Federal legislation governs such activities in Australia.While the concept of the work program bidding system appears to be sound, the administration of it by the Joint Authorities and Designated Authorities and delegated officers potentially creates many uncertainties for permittees.The approval process is generally a costly and time consuming one under the work program bidding system and its administrative cost diverts funds that otherwise may have been directed to exploration activities.Work program permits are also susceptible to uncertainty and dispute as to whether or not the required work program has been met. Issues of proper or improper exercise of discretionary powers can arise, particularly when wide statutory discretionary powers are in practice circumscribed by Administrative Guidelines.The existence of statutory and administrative discretion requires, in the interests of natural justice, that there be appropriate avenues of appeal for aggrieved permittees. All of the foregoing regulation and cost is removed with cash bid permits. Cash bid permits not only reduce costs for Government but also for industry.The authors are of the view that offering permits by way of the cash bidding system should be reintroduced, with modifications to ensure its efficiency.

PESA Australian exploration review 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 493
Author(s):  
D. Lockhart ◽  
D. Spring
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
3D Seismic ◽  
The North ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Gippsland Basin ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
Conventional Oil ◽  
Exploration Activity ◽  
Offshore Petroleum

Available data for 2018 indicates that exploration activity is on the rise in Australia, compared to 2017, and this represents a second year of growth in exploration activity in Australia. There has been an increase in area under licence by 92 000 km2, reversing the downward trend in area under licence that commenced in 2014. Since 2016, exploratory drilling within Australia has seen a continued upward trend in both the number of wells drilled and the percentage of total worldwide. Onshore, 77 conventional exploration and appraisal wells were spudded during the year. Offshore, exploration and appraisal drilling matched that seen in 2017, with five new wells spudded: two in the Roebuck Basin, two in the Gippsland Basin and one in the North Carnarvon Basin. Almost 1500 km of 2D seismic and over 10 000 km2 of 3D seismic were acquired within Australia during 2018, accounting for 2.4% and 3.9% of global acquisition, respectively. This represents an increase in the amount of both 2D and 3D seismic acquired in Australia compared with 2017. Once the 2017 Offshore Petroleum Acreage Release was finalised, seven new offshore exploration permits were awarded as a result. A total of 12 bids were received for round one of the 2018 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Release, demonstrating an increase in momentum for offshore exploration in Australia. The permits are in Commonwealth waters off Western Australia, Victoria and the Ashmore and Cartier islands. In June 2018, the Queensland Government announced the release of 11 areas for petroleum exploration acreage in onshore Queensland, with tenders closing in February/March 2019; a further 11 areas will be released in early 2019. The acreage is a mix of coal seam gas and conventional oil and gas. Victoria released five areas in the offshore Otway Basin within State waters. In the Northern Territory, the moratorium on fracking was lifted in April, clearing the way for exploration to recommence in the 2019 dry season. With the increase in exploration has come an increase in success, with total reserves discovered within Australia during 2018 at just under 400 million barrels of oil equivalent, representing a significant increase from 2017. In 2018, onshore drilling resulted in 18 new discoveries, while offshore, two new discoveries were made. The most notable exploration success of 2018 was Dorado-1 drilled in March by Quadrant and Carnarvon Petroleum in the underexplored Bedout Sub-basin. Dorado is the largest oil discovery in Australia of 100 million barrels, or over, since 1996 and has the potential to reinvigorate exploration in the region.

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