Australia's Queensland state government will offer another five gas exploration permits for the Surat basin, its largest onshore gas-producing region.
The permits, which cover an area of around 1,500km², will be available for tender on 18 June.
The release comes just weeks before the 9 July deadline for bids on 12 exploration blocks covering more than 6,700km² of land in south and central west Queensland.
Queensland last month issued two gas exploration permits to Australian independent Santos and Denison Gas after they won respective tenders.
Queensland is the largest producer of onshore gas eastern Australia. Around three quarters of its onshore output used as feedstock for the three LNG plants at Gladstone port, which have a combined capacity of 25.3mn t/yr.
