2022 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release for Four Australian Basins

10 offshore petroleum exploration areas were released for bidding in 2022 across four Australian sedimentary basins: the Bonaparte, Browse, Gippsland, and Northern Carnarvon Basins. The dataset is provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network and includes interactive maps via Geoscience Australia's portal. Work program bidding for these areas was open until March 2, 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyze potential exploration investment zones based on the 10 released acreage areas.
• Map offshore resource exploration opportunities based on the four specified sedimentary basins.
• Study the spatial distribution of government-offered petroleum exploration rights based on the geospatial data formats.

Strengths

• Covers 10 distinct exploration areas for a specific annual release cycle.
• Geospatial data is available in multiple interactive and standard formats (WFS, WMS, PNG).
• Explicitly names the four sedimentary basins covered: Bonaparte, Browse, Gippsland, and Northern Carnarvon.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing solely on Australian waters.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, referencing the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

Collection Method

Official government release of exploration acreage.

Time Range

2022 release, with bidding open until 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 20:02:00.036236; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian offshore areas within the Bonaparte, Browse, Gippsland, and Northern Carnarvon Basins.