Shell and Mitsui exploration permit AC/P41 expires after extension bid withdrawn

The Delegate of the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator, Monica Joanne Campi, has given formal notice that Petroleum Exploration Permit AC/P41, held by Shell Australia Pty Ltd and Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd, expired on 8 July 2026. The expiry followed the withdrawal of an application to extend the permit term. The declaration appears in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (Government Notices) of 27 October 2026, under official reference C2026G00695.

The notice is made under sections 471 and 708 of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 and takes the form of a short declaration signed by the Delegate of the Titles Administrator, the Commonwealth office responsible for offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas titles. It was registered on 27 October 2026, close to four months after the expiry date it records, so the end of the title enters the public record only now. The gazetted text gives no figure for the permit’s area, no detail of work commitments or expenditure, and no description of where in Commonwealth waters the title lies.

A two-company joint venture loses its title

• Permit: Petroleum Exploration Permit AC/P41
• Holders: Shell Australia Pty Ltd and Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd
• Expiry date recorded: 8 July 2026
• Stated cause: withdrawal of an application to extend the permit term
• Instrument: notice of the Delegate of the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator
• Publication: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Government Notices, 27 October 2026, C2026G00695

The sequence described is withdrawal first, expiry second: the joint venture sought more time for the permit, dropped that request, and the title then ran out on the date stated. The gazette does not record when the extension application was lodged or withdrawn, what conditions were attached to it, or what exploration work was carried out over the life of the permit.

A statutory notice under the offshore petroleum Act

Sections 471 and 708 of the Act are the provisions cited for the notice, which is signed in the name of Monica Joanne Campi as Delegate of the Titles Administrator. The wording is the standard gazettal formula used for offshore title events: the delegate “hereby gives notice” of the expiry, identifies the permit and the holders, and fixes the date. Because expiry is recorded by notice rather than by a reasoned decision, no grounds, submissions or objections are canvassed in the published text, and no penalty, security or remediation condition is mentioned.

The same office has issued a comparable run of notices in recent months. In each case the gazette records a title event in a few lines, without commentary, and the notice takes effect from publication.

Other offshore title events gazetted this spring

• Expiry of Petroleum Retention Lease T/RL4, held by Beach Energy (Operations) Limited and Beach Energy Limited, recorded as expiring on 7 June 2026 (C2026G00568, 26 August 2026).
• Revocation of the declaration of a location over Block 3399, map sheet SJ55 (Melbourne), known as White Ibis, on the ground that the block was no longer the subject of a petroleum retention lease (C2026G00569, 26 August 2026).
• Declaration of the West Peron identified greenhouse gas storage formation over 34 blocks on map sheet Darwin SD52, made by the responsible Commonwealth Minister, Madeleine King (C2026G00685, 22 October 2026).

Taken together, the notices show one administrative machinery handling both ends of the offshore title cycle: closing tenure where a petroleum title lapses, and creating new storage rights for carbon dioxide in the same offshore estate. The AC/P41 notice belongs to the first category, and it is the only entry on the file that names both Shell Australia and Mitsui E&P Australia.

What the expiry changes

From 8 July 2026, Petroleum Exploration Permit AC/P41 stands recorded in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette as expired, which means the two companies no longer hold the title under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006. Any future exploration of the ground covered by AC/P41 would rest on a new title rather than on the lapsed permit, so the notice is the public marker of acreage no longer under joint-venture tenure. For operators, investors and communities tracking offshore petroleum activity, the entry also fixes an authoritative date — 8 July 2026 — for the end of that tenure, four months before the fact was formally published.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 27 October 2026, Government Notices, Section I (official reference: C2026G00695).