The Federal Government has revealed the 2013 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acerage Release, covering 31 areas across six basins in Commonwealth waters offshore of the Northern Territory, Ashmore and Carier Islands, Western Australia and Victoria.

In announcing he Acreage Release at the annual APPEA conference in Brisbane earlier this week, Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray said that the release contained significant new exploration opportunities for the global petroleum industry.

"The 2013 Acreage Release includes areas in highly prospective mature basins including the Northern Carnarvon and Gippsland as well as exciting new areas in relatively underexplored basins such as the Perth Basin," Mr Gray said.

"As with previous releases, there was strong interest in the area nomination process with 29 of the 31 areas underpinned by industry nominations.

"The remaining two areas in the North Perth Basin were nominated by Geoscience Australia as having particular prospectivity, based upon new scientific results from a targeted pre-competitive data acquisition campaign in the region.”

Maps and further information on the 2013 Release areas and bidding process, as well as how to nominate areas for the 2014 Release, are available at www.petroleum-acreage.gov.au