A planned move into the depths of the Otway and Gippsland basins was signalled by the Department of Industry’s nominations for the 2015 acreage release.

The department said input by industry to the annual acreage release was unprecedented, with a record 90 nominations from 13 companies.

The wish-list of industry was whittled down to 28 proposed areas, which could still be subject to change ahead of the official release at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in May.

The biggest trend in the proposed release is a shift into deep water on the east coast, with three large areas in the Otway Basin and one in the Gippsland Basin.

As the accompanying map shows, the Otway Basin areas cover the continental slope from the border between South Australia and Victoria all the way to the northwest tip of Tasmania.

Deepwater exploration in the Otway Basin has been largely non-existent for the past decade, with Santos drilling the last deepwater well (Amrit-1) in 2004.

Former junior explorer Essential Petroleum held the only other deepwater permit in the Otway Basin (VIC/P50), where it identified a number of oil prospects with an estimated (P50) recoverable oil resource totalling almost 2 billion barrels.

VIC/P50 was relinquished in 2009 without any seismic surveys or wells drilled after Essential Petroleum hit financial trouble.

We can only speculate about the plans of new explorers that have nominated the deepwater Otway Basin for release in 2015.

Gas seems to be a likely target, given the expected doubling of prices from the end of this year as LNG cargoes begin to leave Gladstone.

But the deepwater Otway could also be a lateral-thinking bet on the possible discovery of oil by BP and Statoil in the Great Australian Bight next year.

While the Otway Basin is 1200 kilometres east of the Ceduna sub-basin, it is part of the same southern Australian margin and broadly shares the same depositional and structural setting.

With acreage in the Ceduna sub-basin all but taken, the deepwater Otway could be seen by some explorers as a more affordable entry to the giant oil play now being tested in the Bight.

Demand for new acreage in the Bight remains high, with the proposed release of another area in 2015.

The map shows industry has nominated a giant area of about 30,000sq.km that spans the gap between the central cluster of permits in the Ceduna sub-basin and permits held by Bight Petroleum in the Duntroon sub-basin.

A revival of interest in deepwater exploration in the Gippsland Basin is another highlight for 2015.

A large deepwater area southeast of current acreage is nominated for release, along with a shallow water extension that wraps around to the south of existing exploration activity.

The two proposed permits would effectively double the area of the Gippsland Basin under exploration.

The rising level of interest in the deepwater Gippsland Basin is already evident in the results of the second round of the 2013 release, announced last month.

Liberty Petroleum outbid four other groups to win VIC/P70 with a guarantee to spend $81.3 million in the first three years, including two exploration wells.

The permit is on the southeastern margin of the basin and straddles the edge of the continental shelf down to depths of 3000 metres.

The area was last explored in 2008 by Apache, which drilled Madfish-1, Elver-1 and Coelacanth-1 in an unsuccessful oil campaign.

The deepwater sections of the Gippsland Basin are also highly prospective for gas and explorers are being lured back by soaring prices and the prospect of long-term gas shortages in the eastern states.

The Carnarvon Basin accounts for 11 of the 28 proposed areas for 2015, although most of these are small infill areas.

The only new area of size is on the continental slope on the northeast of the Exmouth Plateau.

The proposed release for the Carnarvon Basin includes four areas of very limited size to be made available under the cash bidding system.

These are in close proximity to the major fields supporting the North West Shelf project, and their selection should allay fears that cash bidding is a grab by government for revenue at the expense of exploration.

The four areas are well explored already, which means expensive work programs just to secure title are nothing more than a gift to the exploration services companies.

As proponents of cash bidding argue, a far more efficient use of capital in these instances is to make a direct bid to government to secure title.

In the Browse Basin, five new areas are proposed for release, including two substantial permits in close proximity to the Santos-operated Crown-1 and Lasseter-1 discoveries.

These have been among the best finds in Australia in the past two years and should generate strong competition for neighbouring acreage.

The Bonaparte Basin accounts for the remainder of the proposed acreage release for 2015, with two regular areas and a small cash bid area at the southern end of the Bonaparte Gulf.

The final release areas for this year will be announced at the APPEA conference in Melbourne on May 17-20.