Offshore staff
(Australia)- Australia has responded to strong oil and gas prices by opening the bidding for 36 new offshore petroleum exploration areas.
The new areas include 20 off Western Australia, five off the Northern Territory, five off Tasmania, four off Victoria and two areas near the Ashmore and Cartier Islands.
"The release of these exploration areas is key to the government's strategy to encourage more petroleum exploration in Australia's vast offshore sedimentary basins," Resource Minister Ian Macfarlane said in a statement.
Bids for 22 of the new areas will close Nov. 9, with bids for the remaining 14 areas to close May 10, 2007.
Exploration permits will be awarded with an initial term of six years.
Macfarlane said "We're already seeing strong interest in Australia's offshore petroleum basins but they remain under-explored." The Australian government has already granted 180 exploration permits in Commonwealth waters, with another 15 due to be allocated in coming months.
LNG developments on the rise
Australia is also working hard to become one of the world's top five exporters of liquefied natural gas. Several projects are under development that are expected to increase LNG production capacity to more than 50 million metric tons a year in the next decade as demand for clean energy grows in Asia and North America.
Several Australian LNG producers, such as Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and BHP Billiton Ltd., are attempting to tap into the developing energy markets of Korea, China, India and Mexico.
Australian production of LNG is forecast to reach 13.1 million metric tons in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006.
According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (Abare), exports of LNG are expected to leap 29% to A$6.4 billion by 2010-11, up from A$5.0 billion in 2005-06.
At the same time, exports of crude oil and condensate are expected to fall 9% to A$7.8 billion in 2010-11 from A$8.5 billion in 2005-06, according to Abare predictions in its March quarter commodities outlook.
5/9/2006
