“All three permits are located in the Basin which has remaining reserves estimated at 600 million barrels of oil and 5 trillion cubic feet of gas,” Macfarlane said.
"They are adjacent to giant producing fields and close to existing infrastructure and an expanding gas market.”
Each permit was awarded to a US company or consortium.
Permit Vic/P58, awarded to Apache Northwest Pty Ltd, is in shallow water adjacent to the three-mile zone. The company’s work program will start with three years of geological and geophysical studies.
Permit Vic/P59 is in shallow-to-deep water near the Blackback and Kingfish oil fields. It has been awarded to US company, Sita Oil Exploration House Inc, which has commited to purchasing 882 square kilometres of 3D seismic data and three wells at an estimated cost of A$70.95 million.
Permit Vic/P60 is in shallow-to-deep water in the south-east of the basin. It has been awarded to a US-based consortium comprising Holloman Corporation, Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties Ltd, Robert Thorpe and Ely Sakhai, whose work program involves collecting new 3D seismic data over 120 square kilometres.
Each permit will be jointly administered by the Australian and Victorian Governments. The Australian and State or Territory governments have now jointly granted 12 new exploration permits for offshore petroleum exploration in Commonwealth waters so far this year.
