A St. John's oil consultant is optimistic about new offshore areas that have been offered for exploration.

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board is soliciting bids for 10 parcels in four exploration areas.

All three of the fields operating in Newfoundland and Labrador's burgeoning oil industry are in the same area of the Grand Banks.

The offer announced Friday, though, opens up more exploration in areas that have had little activity to date. Two are off Newfoundland's Port au Port Peninsula, for instance, while three are in the Sydney Basin, off the island's southwest coast.

Rob Strong, a St. John's-based consultant, said the prospects are bright for both oil and natural gas exploration.

"This is the first time in my memory that I can recall that all areas offshore Newfoundland and Labrador are being explored at one time, or during a five-year period.

"So the fact that there's exploration going on means that potentially we'll have some new discoveries."

Approximately 2.75 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas have already been discovered offshore. The Newfoundland and Labrador government says geoscientific data indicate another six billion barrels of oil and 60 trillion cubic feet of natural gas remain undiscovered around the province.