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Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome.
Today is a significant day in Australia's continuing quest for new hydrocarbon resources.
It marks the release of pre-competitive seismic data and seafloor mapping studies of frontier areas off Australia's west coast - including some of the extended continental shelf acquired in 2008 under United Nations processes.
The offshore industry already provides 90 per cent of the oil and gas produced by Australia.
This new data will inform the acreage release process in 2010 and future years resulting in new exploration opportunities well beyond existing horizons.
Just as Australia has been built on the back of intermittent resources booms for the last 160 years, we need to have an eye out now for the new oil, gas and minerals provinces that will provide for the next 160 years.
It is well-known that greenfield mineral and petroleum exploration is falling compared to total exploration expenditure - at just the time we need to be replenishing our stock of economically-viable resources for the long-term.
That's why Geoscience Australia's pre-competitive work to reduce exploration risk is so important.
It was Geoscience Australia's work that led to the discovery of Olympic Dam - the world's fourth largest remaining copper deposit, fifth largest gold deposit and the largest uranium deposit in the world.
Geoscience Australia's most stunning example of the success of pre-competitive geoscience is in the Browse Basin where the results of a $2 million study in 1996/97 encouraged INPEX to take up exploration acreage in 1998, leading to the proving up of the giant Ichthys gas/condensate field which contains around 12.8 trillion cubic feet of gas and the largest liquids discovery since the 1960s.
To further demonstrate the importance of Geoscience Australia's work, we need only to consider that Australia presently has a $16 billion trade deficit in crude oil, refined products and LPG, and that could grow to $30 billion by 2015.
Nevertheless, Australia is still a net energy-exporting nation - one of only three countries in the OECD along with Canada and Norway.
We are a country rich in coal, gas and uranium resources, and our exports in all three of these energy commodities are set to surge over the next few years on the back of China's growth and it is highly likely the China boom will be followed by India.
Our potential trade deficit in oil will be offset by growth in LNG exports as Pluto and Gorgon, and potentially Ichthys, Wheatstone, Browse, Sunrise, Prelude and the Gladstone LNG projects come on stream over the next decade.
Australian LNG was a $10 billion export industry last financial year and if all these projects proceed then LNG exports could be in the order of $50 billion by 2015-2016.
Strong growth is also forecast in our coal and uranium sectors.
While forecast declining prices could slow the growth in export value, ABARE estimates the volume of Australia's thermal coal exports will be almost 50 per cent higher in 2014/15 than they were last year.
Uranium export volumes are expected to grow strongly over this same period, with their value expected to double to almost $2 billion.
So Australia needs to prepare for the possibility of a sustained expansion of the resources sector - that means addressing export infrastructure bottlenecks, skills and labour needs, and the opening up of future resource provinces.
And while we are rich in coal, gas and uranium resources, our energy security will be greatly enhanced if we are successful in opening up new oil frontiers and can reduce our dependence on imports.
Global oil production is increasingly concentrated in less stable regions of the world.
Here in Australia, most of our oil production comes from just seven major fields and production is declining.
In fact - Australian oil and condensate production in 2009 was more than 40 per cent lower than it was just a decade ago - in 2000.
Western Australia would also benefit from more domestic gas supply and competition, and if we can discover gas closer to demand centres in the southwest, it could be less expensive to produce and get to market and that will be good for households and good for value-adding industry development.
More than 70 per cent of Australia's 50 sedimentary basins are unexplored or under-explored.
That is why the precompetitive exploration work done by Geoscience Australia in Australia's frontier offshore areas is so important.
It encourages the private sector to take up new acreage and explore for commercial opportunities.
It gives Australia an edge in the global competition for capital in what is a high risk industry.
In addition, Australian Government frontier exploration incentives have been in place for some time and measures for the future are part of the Henry Review consideration.
Exploration is vital if we are to establish the pipeline of resource projects we require to secure wealth and prosperity, as well as energy supplies, for the next generation of Australians.
The predicted decline in Australian crude oil and condensate production can be reversed only through opening up new areas and creating opportunities in unexplored and under-explored regions.
The pre-competitive data I'm releasing today is an important part of the Australian Government's efforts to open up new oil and gas provinces for Australia.
It will help you - as explorers - assess the petroleum prospectivity on our continent's southwest margin.
The seismic survey acquired about 7300 kilometres of 2D reflection data in an area extending from the southern tip of Western Australia at Cape Leeuwin, north to Cape Range near Exmouth.
The survey also extended 650 kilometres out to sea over the Wallaby Plateau on Australia's Extended Continental Shelf.
As you can see on the video and in the displays, this was a comprehensive survey.
As well as the seismic information, the survey team collected geological samples from rock outcrops in submarine canyons in the deep-water parts of these basins.
This sampling will provide information on the rock type, chemical composition and age of the rocks, which, as you are no doubt aware, will be critical in determining the petroleum potential in these regions.
The survey also mapped almost 230,000 square kilometres of seabed and obtained video images of the seafloor.
Geoscience Australia has provided the pre-competitive data to assess these offshore areas, but it is the exploration industry - and specifically your companies - which will use this data to secure energy resources for the future and create a strong economic future for Australia.
Yet the benefits from this work are not restricted to the offshore petroleum industry.
The information collected on the sea floor topography and the region's flora and fauna will all play a vital role in assisting with the planning and management of Australia's marine environments.
I'm often asked about the conflict between resource exploration and development, and conservation.
The truth is resource projects and conservation can and do co-exist successfully in many areas of Australia, including in Kakadu and the Kimberley, and our development and conservation agencies work closely together to collect and assess data that not only enhances our economic opportunities, but gives us the information we need to make sure the environment is protected.
The Southwest Margin marine reconnaissance survey is another example of successful cooperation between the Australian Government and state agencies with active involvement of staff from Geoscience Australia, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Geological Survey of Western Australia.
Let me also say that once acreage is released and awarded, all petroleum exploration and development activities are subject to stringent environmental standards, approvals and reporting requirements set out in petroleum-specific environmental legislation and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
I am very pleased to be releasing the new data packages here this morning.
I am confident this new data will be of great assistance in helping industry better understand the region's prospectivity and reduce the risks you face.
In turn, it will play no small part in ensuring Australia's future energy security and economic prosperity.
While this survey will be the last new data acquisition under the Offshore Energy Security Program and the New Petroleum Program, Geoscience Australia's focus over the next year will be to mine and reprocess the significant data it has now collected to extract as much value as possible and strategically target future work programs to enhance Australia's long-term energy security.
Thank you for coming today, and I look forward to hearing about your future exploration successes.