Australia has granted seven new offshore petroleum exploration permits in the gas-prone region around its northwestern coast as part of the second round of its 2011 acreage release, Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson said Thursday.

The recipients of the permits include industry heavyweights Shell, Repsol, Woodside Petroleum, Murphy Oil, and Japan Australia LNG. The permit holders have committed to spending an estimated A$277 million ($290 million) over the next three years exploring the areas, which lie off the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

"There continues to be a strong and growing interest in Australia's prospectivity from both domestic and international companies with 19 bids for seven areas received," Ferguson said in a statement. "These new exploration permits raise the potential to discover new oil and gas reserves, which will underpin new projects, provide more jobs and support the Australian economy."

Australia is currently the third-largest exporter of LNG in the Asia Pacific region and the fourth largest in the world, with shipments worth more than A$12 billion/year. The country currently has three LNG projects with total capacity of about 24 million mt/year.

"Australia has more than half of the world's major LNG projects currently in construction and their completion could see Australia become the world's largest LNG exporter," Ferguson said. "These new permits have the potential to increase project development opportunities and strengthen our energy security and export capacity."

There are currently seven LNG projects being built in Australia which, when completed, will boost the country's total capacity to more than 80 million mt/year.

In separate news earlier this week, Ferguson said Australia was on track to complete all the recommendations from the inquiry into the Montara oil spill off northwestern Australia.

Montara was the source of Australia's worst-ever oil spill in August 2009, when a well being drilled by field operator Thailand's state-controlled PTT Exploration and Production began leaking. The spill continued unchecked for 10 weeks, eventually causing the drilling rig to catch fire, before the well was "killed" in early November.

"In the 12 months since I released the Australian government's response to the Montara inquiry, 81 of the 92 recommendations have been completed, and the remaining 11 accepted recommendations are on track for completion in the coming year," Ferguson said.

Australia also plans to introduce legislation incorporating a "polluter pays" principle to cover all the costs of responding to a hydrocarbon spill.