2025 Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release

The Australian Government has released five new offshore exploration areas in the offshore Otway Basin for petroleum exploration in Commonwealth waters (Figure 1). These release areas are supported by industry nominations; a process that has confirmed ongoing industry interest in the Otway Basin. The closing date for all work program bid submissions for all five areas is Tuesday, 30 June 2026. Companies awarded a permit must meet a range of requirements before starting any offshore exploration activities in Australian Commonwealth waters. We have partnered with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to provide geological information to support this release. Please refer to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources for more information about the release areas, including maps, shapefiles, bidding instructions and the offshore petroleum acreage release process.

The Australian Government supports the release of offshore acreage with access to open file datasets which are discoverable via the National Offshore Petroleum Information System (NOPIMS). Geoscience Australia (GA) supports the acreage releases through providing pre-competitive data and information. Of relevance to this release is GA’s Deepwater Otway Basin Study, which delivered new insights resulting from a major new seismic data acquisition program acquired by Schlumberger in 2020 over the deep-water Otway Basin.

Figure 1. Map of the Otway Basin, showing the location of the 2025 Release Areas, petroleum fields and well distribution.