The Queensland Government has announced it has opened up a further 8700 square kilometres for petroleum and gas exploration at the recent annual Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference.

Addressing the conference, Stte Minister for Natural Resources, Andrew Cripps, called for work program-based tenders to explore for petroleum and gas resources on new six new under-explored and greenfield areas.

“The land open for competitive tender collectively covers 8,783 sq km of under-explored and greenfield terrain in central, south-western and far north Queensland,” Mr Cripps said.

“There is no cash component involved in this particular land tender.

“Applicants will be competitively assessed according to their proposed work program, technical and financial capability and their capacity to meet all relevant evaluation criteria.”

He six new areas open for tender are:

PLR2013-1-1

PLR2013-1-1 is located in the southwest Surat Basin and 70km southeast of Cunnamulla. The area is approximately 1883km2 (625 sub-blocks) and overlies the basement rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt.

PLR2013-1-2

PLR2013-1-2 overlies the deeper part of the Taroom Trough of the Permian-Middle Triassic Bowen Basin. The area is located 25km west from Moura and is approximately 1228km2 (394 sub-blocks) in area.

PLR2013-1-3

PLR2013-1-3 is located on the eastern side of the Taroom Trough. This is about 25km east of Moura and is approximately 2506km2 (804 sub-blocks) in area.

PLR20133-1-4

PLR2013-1-4 is approximately 992km2 (326 sub-blocks) in area and located on the western side of the Taroom Trough, which is 30km southwest of Surat.

PLR2013-1-5

PLR2013-1-5 is located on the western side of the Taroom Trough and 50km northeast of St George and is approximately 936km2 (309 sub-blocks) in area.

PLR2013-2-1

PLR2013-2-1 is located in the Pascoe River area in northeast Cape York Peninsula. It is 120km east of Weipa and approximately 1238km2 (371 sub-blocks) in area. This area is the subject of native title and an agreement will need to be reached prior to the grant of the ATP.