BP today announced that it has been awarded four deepwater offshore blocks in the Ceduna Sub Basin within the Great Australian Bight, off the coast of South Australia.
BP said that it will explore Exploration Permit for Petroleum (EPP) areas EPP 37, EPP 38, EPP 39 and EPP 40 covering an area of 24,000 square kilometres for oil and gas reserves, with the right to develop any commercially viable discoveries.
“This is a material and early move into an unexplored deepwater basin,” said Mike Daly, executive vice president of Exploration for BP.
“The Ceduna Sub Basin is a very exciting new exploration area for BP. Our experience tells us that the geology has a high potential for containing hydrocarbons,” added Phil Home, managing director of BP’s Australian upstream oil and gas business.
BP said that the proposed exploration activity would be phased over six years and, as part of the regulatory approval process, would be subject to detailed environmental assessment.
On Saturday, BP and Russia’s state-owned Rosneft signed a major agreement to explore and develop three license blocks on the Russian Arctic continental shelf and also carry out a share swap between the multinational oil giant and Russian national oil company.
