The Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane, made the announcement from the Annual Conference of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) being held in Canberra.

The areas being made available for open bidding by the petroleum exploration industry include: 17 areas off Western Australia, 5 areas off Tasmania, 3 areas off Northern Territory, 2 areas off Victoria and 4 areas off the Ashmore and Cartier Islands.

The 31 areas will be the principal release of offshore acreage this year. Bids for 11 of the areas will close on 30 September 2004. Bidding for the remaining 20 areas will close on 31 March 2005.

"This year's release includes a broad range of areas from mature to frontier, offering exciting opportunities for exploration companies of all sizes," Mr Macfarlane said.

"The Government has made a strong commitment to back up its acreage release program by the 2003 budget allocating $61 million over four years to Geoscience Australia's petroleum program.

"The money is for a new phase of data acquisition, preservation of seismic data and supporting core petroleum activities of Geoscience Australia. The outcome of the new data acquisition program will be offering new prospective areas in future annual releases of offshore petroleum acreage."

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