Cooper Energy granted life-of-field production licence VIC/L38 off Victoria

The Commonwealth–Victoria Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority has granted a life-of-field petroleum production licence over two graticular blocks to Cooper Energy (PBF) Pty. Ltd., with effect from and including 27 October 2026. The grant of VIC/L38 is published in a Government Notices notice in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette registered on 30 October 2026 under reference C2026G00707. The notice was signed by Nicole Lynette Filbay in her capacity as Delegate of the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator, acting on behalf of the Joint Authority.

The notice is made under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006, whose sections 471 and 708 head the published text. It converts the tenure of a defined offshore area from a retention lease — a title that holds acreage without producing — into a production licence, and states that the earlier lease no longer applies to the same acreage once the new title takes effect. No acreage is added or removed: the two instruments cover the same two blocks.

Retention lease retired as production title begins

The operative paragraph of the notice records that Petroleum Retention Lease VIC/RL16 ceases to be in force in relation to the blocks covered by the new licence upon the grant of VIC/L38. The two tenures are therefore expressly linked: the retention lease does not lapse independently but is terminated in relation to that acreage by the act of granting production tenure.

The licence is described in the notice as a “life-of-field” production licence, the form of title granted for the productive life of the accumulation it covers rather than for a fixed exploratory term. The grant has effect from and including 27 October 2026, three days before the instrument was registered and published in the Gazette.

Who decides, and on what statutory basis

The decision is taken at joint authority level: the Commonwealth and Victoria administer the acreage through the Commonwealth–Victoria Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority, and the grant is issued on that body’s behalf. The notice is given pursuant to section 708 of the Act, which governs the notification of title decisions, while the heading of the document also cites section 471.

Administration of the instrument rests with the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator, whose delegate signed the published text. The signature block appears as Nicole Lynette Filbay, Delegate of the Titles Administrator, on behalf of the Joint Authority — the official attestation that carries the grant into public record.

Particulars published in the notice

• Licence: Petroleum Production Licence VIC/L38, life-of-field.
• Holder: Cooper Energy (PBF) Pty. Ltd.
• Area: graticular blocks 1781 and 1782 of the Map Sheet SJ55 (Melbourne).
• Effective date: from and including 27 October 2026.
• Tenure superseded: Petroleum Retention Lease VIC/RL16, which ceases to be in force in relation to those blocks on grant.
• Statutory basis: sections 471 and 708, Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Publication: Government Notices Gazette C2026G00707, registered 30 October 2026.

The notice is confined to the fact of the grant and the fate of the retention lease. It states no reserves or resource figures, no production rates, no work-programme commitments and no licence conditions, so none of those elements can be read into the instrument itself.

Why the conversion matters

For the operator, the entry into force of VIC/L38 is the formal end of the holding phase over blocks 1781 and 1782: the acreage is now held under production tenure for the life of the field, and the retention lease that previously covered it no longer applies. For the regulator, the notice is the public marker of that transition, signed at delegate level on behalf of the joint authority and gazetted within days of the 27 October effective date.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Government Notices, 30 October 2026, notices (official reference: C2026G00707).