Australia’s oil and gas exploration spending increased to A$1.26 billion ($926 million) in the fiscal year 2019-2020 (ended June 30) from A$1.25 billion in the previous fiscal year, official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed. According to the data, Queensland led the increase in onshore exploration spending, which offset the decrease in spending in offshore Western Australia.
The overall sharp decline in spending resulted in lower offshore exploration expenditure. For the April-June quarter, offshore spending was down by 71% year-on-year to A$66.6 million. It was also more than 50% lower than A$141 million spent in January-March. The ABS said offshore spending in the April-June quarter of 2020 was the lowest since the July-September quarter of 1991.
For the full fiscal year, total offshore spending fell to a two-decade low of A$593.2 million, down by 26.8% from A$810.9 in the previous fiscal year. In contrast, onshore exploration expenditure increased to a five-year high of A$665.8 million in FY 2019-2020 from A$437.6 million in the prior fiscal year. This was the largest annual spending since A$489.8 million in FY 2014-2015, according to the ABS data.
