<div>The Pedirka, Simpson and western Eromanga basins in central Australia have undergone a chequered exploration history which has seen a total of only 42 wells drilled across a study area of ~210,000km2. Exploration initially focused on conventional hydrocarbons from the 1950s-1980s, before shifting towards coal seam gas (CSG) opportunities in the mid-2000s. Active petroleum systems have been proven in the region by a non-commercial oil discovery at Poolowanna 1 in 1977, and by several wells that showed evidence of residual oil columns. CSG exploration wells have confirmed the presence of thick, marginally mature coal intervals on the flanks of the basins, but are yet to evaluate the deeper troughs.</div><div>Geoscience Australia, the Northern Territory Geological Survey and the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining have been collaborating on the Australia’s Future Energy Resources project under the Australian government funded Exploring for the Future Program to undertake an assessment of the resource potential for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons, and the geological carbon and storage (GCS) potential of the greater Pedirka region. </div><div>The project applied a play-based exploration approach to qualitatively assess the resource potential of the region. The Carboniferous to Cretaceous stratigraphic interval was divided into 14 plays which were evaluated for the presence of sediment-hosted energy resources through post-drill analysis, gross depositional environment mapping and common risk segment mapping. The analysis identified energy resources and GCS potential across multiple plays and locations within the study area. These results demonstrate, that while the region is underexplored, it should not be overlooked by future exploration activities.</div> Published in The APPEA Journal 2023. <b>Citation:</b> Iwanec Jeremy, Strong Paul, Bernecker Tom (2023) Underexplored but not forgotten: assessing the energy resources potential of the greater Pedirka Basin region through play-based mapping. <i>The APPEA Journal</i><b> 63</b>, S251-S256. https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22150

<div>The “Australia’s Future Energy Resources” (AFER) project, funded under the Government’s “Exploring for the Future” (EFTF) program has been completed. The project’s four modules have evaluated a mixture of energy resource commodities, including natural gas, hydrogen, subsurface storage opportunities for carbon dioxide and hydrogen. They are complimented by several targeted basin inventories which outline the current geological knowledge of energy resources in underexplored, data-poor regions. Several publicly available data sets have been generated and published under the AFER project, including 3,750&nbsp;line-km of reprocessed 2D seismic data, acquired in the Pedirka and western Eromanga basins, of which key lines have been interpreted and integrated with geological and petrophysical well log data. Relative prospectivity maps have been produced for five energy resource commodities from 14&nbsp;play intervals to show the qualitative variability in prospectivity of these resources, including quantitative resource assessments where warranted. Results from the AFER project have helped to identify and geologically characterise the required energy resource commodities to accelerate Australia’s path to net zero emissions.</div> Presented at the Australian Energy Producers (AEP) Conference & Exhibition (https://energyproducersconference.au/conference/)

<div>The Permian Pedirka, the Triassic Simpson and the Jurassic–Cretaceous western Eromanga basins in central Australia have undergone a sporadic exploration history which commenced in the 1950s. Exploration initially focused on conventional hydrocarbons from the 1950s–1980s, before shifting towards coal seam gas (CSG) opportunities in the 2000s. The basins remain underexplored with only 42 wells drilled, and ~16,000 line&nbsp;km of 2D seismic acquired across a study area of ~210,000&nbsp;km2. An active petroleum system has been proven by a non-commercial oil discovery at Poolowanna&nbsp;1, as well as by several wells that show evidence of residual oil columns. However, sparse and low-quality seismic data make it challenging to map and identify new energy resource opportunities. Geoscience Australia, the Northern Territory Geological Survey, and the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining are collaborating on the Australia’s Future Energy Resources (AFER) project to undertake an assessment of the resource potential for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons and the carbon capture and storage (CCS) potential in the Pedirka, Simpson and western Eromanga basins. The project’s objective is to produce spatially-enabled and risked resource estimates to provide government and industry stakeholders with decision making tools to address the region’s energy resources and CCS potential. Post-drill analysis is a key component of evaluating the resource potential of a region by ensuring that a systematic, data-driven approach is used to evaluate discrete exploration play intervals and trapping mechanisms. The study area has been divided into 16 chronostratigraphic play intervals and post-drill analysis has been undertaken to evaluate the presence and effectiveness of the main conventional petroleum systems play elements of reservoir, seal, trap and hydrocarbon charge. The post-drill analysis methodology to assess conventional hydrocarbons has also been modified to assess the geological elements that are essential to evaluate unconventional petroleum resources and CCS potential within the study area. The qualitative results indicate conventional hydrocarbon, CCS, CSG and shale hydrocarbon opportunities across multiple plays, highlighting that an area that has been primarily explored for one resource type in the past may have other opportunities for industry to evaluate. This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2022 Central Australian Basins Symposium IV (CABS) 29-30 August (https://agentur.eventsair.com/cabsiv/)