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    2. Australia & New Zealand

    Melbana nets exploration permit offshore northwest Australia

    Feb. 16, 2022
    Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator has awarded Melbana Energy petroleum exploration permit AC/P70 for an initial period of six years.
    (Courtesy Melbana Energy)
    Melbana Acp70 620d3be6299a5

    Offshore staff

    MELBOUNE, Australia – NOPTA, Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator, has awarded Melbana Energy petroleum exploration permit AC/P70 in the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands offshore northwest Australia for an initial period of six years.

    Melbana applied for the permit under Australia’s 2020 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release.

    AC/P70 contains the undeveloped Vesta-1 oil discovery, drilled in 2005. The Vesta-2 appraisal well in 2007 identified a gas cap.

    Melbana said the complex field presented an attractive opportunity, with the company specializing in identifying new play types and attracting large partners to test its exploration theses.

    Executive chairman Andrew Purcell said: “Our experience in this sub-basin coupled with the previous discoveries and multiple data sets and play types offered in this permit area affords a good opportunity…”

    Work requirements include reprocessing and inversion of existing 3D seismic data, and drilling of an exploration well.

    02/16/2022