Exploration & new ventures
Screen acreage, compare published commitments and identify the questions to resolve before assigning a bid team.
The register
Licensing rounds, deadlines, regulator sources and dated changes across oil & gas, CO2 storage and geothermal.
Acreage Intelligence
Source-backed terms, awards, subsurface data and analysis of what each opportunity involves.
See what you get with Acreage Intelligence →Where the ground is
Use this search to find countries, rounds, blocks and research questions inside closed sections.
Select countries to compare their entries. Select a country again to remove it. Equirectangular, trimmed at 84°N and 60°S — shapes are simplified and are not a survey. Dots mark small countries approximately; they do not show acreage locations. Sub-national entries (Texas, New Mexico, Alaska, BLM) all sit under the United States.
When the doors shut
Open and rolling
Open or rolling as last verified, sorted by published closing date. Check each entry’s verification date and flags: a rolling regime does not guarantee that a particular block is available. Use the resource filter for oil & gas, CO2 storage or geothermal.
Announced, no dates
Governments and NOCs have committed publicly but published no block list or deadline. Several of these have slipped repeatedly — Tanzania's fifth round has been imminent since early 2025.
Closed for business
The half of this map nobody publishes. A moratorium, a ban or an abolished regulator is as decisive for a new-ventures screen as an open round — and far harder to find out about, because nothing gets announced when nothing happens.
Recently closed and awarded
What happened to the acreage, and what came back. Unawarded blocks return to the basket and reappear on revised terms — Libya is relaunching seventeen, Nigeria thirteen.
One open sample · checked 18 October 2026
Suriname: what entry actually involves
Open-Door Offering · a fixed sample of the process research in Intelligence. The extract below shows how the paid research separates published requirements, source gaps and interpretation.
- Can I still enter?
- The offering runs for two years from 24 November 2025. Companies choose acreage within a sector and propose their work programme.
- What route can I use?
- A production sharing contract, or a joint study / technical evaluation agreement. Qualification comes before proposal submission, including for existing operators.
- Can someone compete for my area?
- Yes. Staatsolie publishes the acreage within 20 days; competing proposals have 90 days. Evaluation and selection then take 20 days.
- How long to an agreement?
- The published finalisation period is 90 days for a PSC and 30 days for a JSA.
- Can I apply with partners?
- The operator must hold at least 30%; each participant at least 10%. Consortium interests must total 100%.
- Does arriving first protect me?
- No early-submission priority. Proposals are assessed on quality and the published scoring system.
Derived reading · Acreage’s assessment: qualification and competitor response time belong in the entry plan. Filing first does not secure the acreage.
Source: Staatsolie’s Open-Door FAQ, re-read 18 October 2026. This process extract does not establish fees, fiscal terms or current availability of an individual area.
Ask about Suriname research →Choose the depth you need
The register and Acreage Intelligence
The register helps you find and follow opportunities. The paid research helps you assess the terms, evidence and outstanding questions before committing more time.
| What do you need to know? | Free | Paid Intelligence |
|---|---|---|
| Where can I look, and when? Rounds, deadlines and regulator links | Included | Included |
| What changed, and where is access restricted? Maps, closed jurisdictions and dated changes | Included | Included |
| What would entry commit us to? Published terms, fees and work commitments | — | Included |
| Who won, and what still has to happen? Awards, bidders and outstanding conditions | — | Included |
| Is there enough data to assess this? Published subsurface coverage and access | — | Included |
| What is happening before a round opens? Dated documents and procurement sources | — | Included |
| Who is already there? Recorded incumbency and entry history | — | Included |
| What deserves a closer look? Bid criteria, unsold acreage and entry-cost analysis | — | Included |
Research depth varies by entry. Published facts, source gaps and derived analysis are labelled separately. “Included” describes the coverage available in each version, not a complete record for every round.
Spend less time checking. Know what deserves a closer look.
Use the paid research to shortlist opportunities, identify missing information and decide where your team should spend its time.
Subsurface & data companies
Follow licensing plans and technical activity to prioritise market research, studies and business-development conversations.
Advisers & consultants
Build a sourced starting point for client briefings and track changes across the countries they follow.
Investors & analysts
Distinguish announced opportunities from open rounds and follow what remains outstanding after an award.
Curious what insights Acreage Intelligence could give you?
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Sourcing
Regulator-published
Trade press or conference only
Sources conflict
Every entry links to the source it came from. Where a regulator has published nothing and the round exists only in a ministerial statement at a conference, that is marked — because "announced at AEW" and "biddable to a published deadline" are not the same thing, and treating them as equivalent is how a screening exercise wastes a quarter.
Two entries carry active contradictions in their published sources. Kazakhstan's twelfth round shows an auction date falling before its own application deadline. Algeria's block count is reported as seven perimeters by three sources and twenty-four by a fourth. These are flagged rather than silently resolved. Bangladesh was a third until Petrobangla's own Invitation for Bid was located and enumerated the blocks — twenty-six, not twenty-seven. That is what this publication is for.
Compiled from primary regulator publications where they exist, and trade press where they do not. Dates are as published and move frequently — India's OALP-X deadline was extended four times. Verify against the regulator before committing capital or a bid team.