THE COOPER BASIN NATIVE TITLE AGREEMENTS—AN EXPLORER’S PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

On 22 October 2001 in Adelaide, the successful bidders for the 1998 First Round Cooper Basin Acreage Release, the South Australian Government, and various native title claimant groups completed the signing of historic and long awaited native title agreements. A few days later, the Petroleum Exploration Licences (PEL) were issued in respect of the blocks covered by those agreements, and so commenced a new era of oil and gas exploration in South Australia.

This paper examines the process that led to the finalisation of negotiations and the signing of the agreements, from the perspective of one of the exploration companies that participated in the negotiations.