Australia awards Timor Sea permit

Australia awarded an offshore petroleum exploration permit in the Ashmore and Cartier Islands region of the Timor Sea west of Darwin, the Federal and Northern Territory governments said. Permit AC/P32 was awarded to a consortium of Daytona Energy Corp (36 %), Eagle Bay Resources NL (30 %) and Norwest Energy NL unit Westranch Holdings Pty Ltd (34 %) which will spend about A$ 20.3 mm on exploration in the next six years. "The permit is an important petroleum province for Australia, adjacent to new discoveries and existing production facilities," Industry, Science and Resources Minister Nick Minchin said.
The new permit area covers 1,085 sq km in water depths from 60 to 100 metres in the Vulcan sub-basin of the Bonaparte Basin. The permit is about 40 km south-west of the Challis joint venture oil field operated by Newfield Exploration Co and about 30 km from the Crux gas and condensate discovery made by Nippon Oil Co Ltd late last year.
The 149,000 bpd Laminaria oil field operated by Woodside Petroleum Ltd is also in the Bonaparte Basin. Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he always attempted to make decisions in the national interest when considering foreign investment such as Shell bid for Woodside Petroleum.
"In making decisions on foreign investment proposals we always try to make a national interest judgment," Howard said in an interview. "Like everybody else my heart is with Australian ownership but my head tells me that an economy as small as Australia which is part of the world economy cannot put up the shutters against all foreign investment. That is ridiculous," he said.
The Shell offer for Woodside, the operator and one-sixth stakeholder of the giant North West Shelf gas project offshore Western Australia, is conditional on approval by Treasurer Peter Costello, who is awaiting advice by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Shell has offered A$ 14.80 plus a call option in the first stage of its bid to lift its stake in Woodside to 56 % from 34 % through an asset for shares swap. Deliberations by the FIRB have been clouded by rising opposition to the takeover of Australian companies by foreign firms and comments by Howard that he was concerned Australia not become a "branch-office economy."