Bass Strait

Sea channel separating the mainland of Australia from Tasmania. The strait is 322 km/200 mi long, with an average width of 255 km/158 mi. Oil was discovered here in 1965 and first extracted in 1969. The region now has 18 oil and gas fields.

The strait is named after the British explorer George Bass, who visited it in 1798. The region's oil fields produce an average of 138,000 barrels of oil each day, and the gas fields produce an average of 8 cubic metres/283 cubic feet of gas per day.