b'Canberra observedFigure 2.Areas in Gippsland Basin where permits have been awarded to explore for GHG storage sites. All four were awarded to the Victorian Government (see text).Table 1.Greenhouse gas storage sites being investigated by Australian ensure the greenhouse gas is safely governmentsand securely stored, provide mechanisms to manage interactions between the green and Regions Basins petroleum industries, andSouth West Western Australia South Perth (onshore) Vlaming sub-basin (offshore)regulate site closures and long-term North West Western Australia Browse (offshore) Canning (onshore) liability treatments.Victoria Gippsland (offshore)Stage 1,Gippsland (offshore)Stage 2 If you are interested in participating in this programme, then you should Southern and central Queensland Surat and Bowen (onshore) provide your contact details and a New South Wales NSW (onshore) Darling (onshore) general location of the area that you Northern Australia Petrel Sub-basin Bonaparte Basin (offshore) may be interested in exploring to ghgacreage@industry.gov.au.Offshore petroleum exploration updateThree new offshore explorationgov.au/news-media/2018-offshore- forthe foreseeable future. From now permits awarded petroleum-acreage-release-cash- on, bids will be primarily assessed bidding-results). onthe value of the committed In February 2019 three new cash-bidprogramme of exploration activities exploration permits were awardedCash-bid permits authorise theproposed and will apply to all sizes of bythe Australian Government. Theyholderto apply to undertaketenement.areinoffshore areas of Westernexploration activities in the permit Australia andVictoria, and arearea.They have usually beenThe successful companies in this tranche outcomes from the2018 Offshoreapplied tosmall tenements, and theof permits paid a total of $11.1 million to Petroleum ExplorationAcreage ReleaseGovernment has announced thatsecure the right to explore these areas for auction (see https://www.industry. thiswill be the last cash-bid auctionthe next 6 years.APRIL 2019 PREVIEW 26'