<b>Legacy service Retired 29/11/2022 IMPORTANT NOTICE: </b>This web service has been deprecated. The Australian Onshore and Offshore Boreholes OGC service at https://services.ga.gov.au/gis/boreholes/ows should now be used for accessing Geoscience Australia borehole data. This is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web service providing access to Australian onshore and offshore borehole data. This web service is intended to complement the borehole GeoSciML-Portrayal v4.0 web service, providing access to the data in a simple, non-standardised structure. The borehole data includes Mineral Drillholes, Petroleum Wells and Water Bores along with a variety of others types. The dataset has been restricted to onshore and offshore Australian boreholes, and bores that have the potential to support geological investigations and assessment of a variety of resources.

<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, strong, sustainable resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. The EFTF program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government.</div><div>The onshore Canning Basin in Western Australia was the focus of a regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment undertaken by the EFTF program dedicated to increasing investment in resource exploration in northern Australia, with the objective being to acquire new data and information about the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed beneath the surface. As part of this program, significant work has been carried out to deliver pre-competitive data in the region including new seismic acquisition, drilling of a stratigraphic well, and geochemical analysis from historic exploration wells.</div><div>As part of this program, a compilation of the compound-specific isotopic compositions of crude oils from 30 petroleum wells in the Canning Basin have been completed. The samples were analysed in Geoscience Australia’s Isotope and Organic Geochemistry Laboratory and the collated results are released in this report. This report provides additional stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic data to build on the oil-oil correlations previously established by Edwards and Zumberge (2005) and Edwards et al. (2013). This information can be used in future geological programs to determine the origin of the crude oils, and hence increase our understanding of the Larapintine Petroleum Supersystem, as established by Bradshaw (1993) and Bradshaw et al. (1994).</div><div><br></div>

The Australian Government’s $225 million Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program is committed to supporting a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of Australians (https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf). At its heart, the program is about stimulating industry now to ensure a sustainable, long-term future for Australia through an improved understanding of the nation’s minerals, energy and groundwater resource potential. By gathering and analysing geological and geophysical data and making the results publicly available, the program supports regional development and informed decision making across Australia, resulting in jobs and growth. The Energy component of this program is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of onshore basins and attract exploration investment to Australia. As part of the EFTF Natural Hydrogen module, molecular and isotopic analyses were undertaken by Geoscience Australia on natural gas samples from the wells Canunda 2 and Ralgnal 1 from the southwestern margin of the Patchawarra Trough in the Cooper Basin, with the raw data from these analyses being released in this report. Some data from these wells were included in the nationwide studies of helium and hydrogen, as published by Boreham et al. (2018; 2021), and build on previous studies that document the composition of Australian natural gases (Boreham et al., 2001). These data are available through the Geoscience Australia portal at https://portal.ga.gov.au/

Although the Canning Basin has yielded minor gas and oil within conventional and unconventional reservoirs, the relatively limited geological data available in this under-explored basin hinder a thorough assessment of its hydrocarbon potential. Knowledge of the Paleozoic Larapintine Petroleum Supersystem is restricted by the scarcity of samples, especially recovered natural gases, which are limited to those collected from recent exploration successes in Ordovician and Permo-Carboniferous successions along the margins of the Fitzroy Trough and Broome Platform. To address this shortcoming, gases trapped within fluid inclusions were analysed from 121 Ordovician to Permian rock samples (encompassing cores, sidewall cores and cuttings) from 70 exploration wells with elevated mud gas readings. The molecular and carbon isotopic compositions of these gases have been integrated with gas compositions derived from open-file sources and recovered gases analysed by Geoscience Australia. Fluid inclusion C1–C5 hydrocarbon gases record a snapshot of the hydrocarbon generation history. Where fluid inclusion gases and recovered gases show similar carbon isotopes, a simple filling history is likely; where they differ, a multicharge history is evident. Since some fluid inclusion gases fall outside the carbon isotopic range of recovered gases, previously unidentified gas systems may have operated in the Canning Basin. Interestingly, the carbon isotopes of the fluid-inclusion heavy wet gases converge with the carbon isotopes of the light oil liquids, indicating potential for gas–oil correlation. A regional geochemical database incorporating these analyses underpins our re-evaluation of gas systems and gas–gas correlations across the basin. <b>Citation:</b> Boreham, C.J., Edwards, D.S., Sohn, J.H., Palatty, P., Chen, J.H. and Mory, A.J., 2020. Gas systems in the onshore Canning Basin as revealed by gas trapped in fluid inclusions. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

<div>Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is an Australian Government program led by Geoscience Australia, in partnership with state and Northern Territory governments, and aimed at stimulating exploration now to ensure a sustainable, long-term future for Australia through an improved understanding of the nation’s minerals, energy and groundwater resource potential. </div><div>The EFTF program is currently focused on eight interrelated projects, united in growing our understanding of subsurface geology. One of these projects, the Barkly–Isa–Georgetown project, will deliver new data and knowledge to assess the mineral and energy potential in undercover regions between Tennant Creek, Mount Isa and Georgetown. Building on the work completed in the first four years of the Exploring for the Future program (2016-2020), the project undertook stratigraphic drilling in the East Tennant and South Nicholson regions, in collaboration with MinEx CRC and the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS). This work tests geological interpretations and the inferred mineral and energy potential of these covered regions. Geoscience Australia is undertaking a range of analyses on physical samples from these drill holes including geochemistry and geochronology. </div><div>The South Nicholson National Drilling Initiative (NDI) Carrara 1 drill hole is the first drillhole to intersect the Proterozoic rocks of the Carrara Sub-Basin, a depocentre newly discovered in the South Nicholson region based on interpretation from seismic surveys acquired as part of the EFTF. It is located on the western flanks of the Carrara Sub-basin on the South Nicholson Seismic line 17GA-SN1, reaching a total depth of 1751 m, intersecting ca. 630 m of Cambrian Georgina Basin overlying ca. 1100 m of Proterozoic carbonates, black shales and minor siliciclastics.</div><div>The NDI BK10 drill hole is the tenth drill hole drilled as part of the East Tennant project aimed to constrain the East Tennant basement geology and calibrate predictive mineral potential maps to further our understanding of the prospectivity of this region. NDI BK10 reached a depth of 766 m and intersected basement at 734 m. Overlying these basement metasediments of the Alroy Formation, the drillhole intersected about 440 m of Proterozoic rocks underlain by ca. 300 m rocks of Cambrian age from the Georgina Basin.</div><div>During coring of NDI Carrara 1 and NDI BK10, cores containing oil stains were identified and sent for geochemical analysis to Geoscience Australia. This report presents the geochemical data from these oil stains including biomarker and isotopic data.</div>

<div>Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is a program dedicated to exploring Australia’s resource potential and boosting investment. This program is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of onshore basins and attract exploration investment to Australia. This record presents geochemical analyses of natural gases sampled from Nangwarry 1, located in the onshore Otway Basin, undertaken in partnership with the Department for Energy and Mining – Energy Resources, Government of South Australia, as part of the EFTF program Natural Hydrogen module. The Nangwarry Joint Venture drilled Nangwarry 1 to investigate the potential for the development of food grade, carbon dioxide production from this well. The results of the molecular and stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic analyses undertaken by Geoscience Australia are released in this report. The molecular data show that the gas composition in this well has an average of 96 mol% CO2 with an isotopic signature indicative of a magmatic origin, being comparable with previously produced gases from onshore Otway Basin wells (e.g. Boggy Creek 1, Caroline 1) for use by the food industry. The carbon and hydrogen isotopic composition of the C1–C5 hydrocarbon gases from Nangwarry 1 are suggestive of a source from within the Crayfish Supersequence.</div>

Geoscience Australia and its predecessors have analysed the hydrochemistry of water sampled from bores, surface features, rainwater and core samples (pore water). Samples have been collected during drilling or monitoring projects, including Exploring for the Future (EFTF). The hydrochemistry database includes physical-chemical parameters (EC, pH, redox potential, dissolved oxygen), major and minor ions, trace elements, isotopes and nutrients. The resource is accessible via the Geoscience Australia Portal <a href="https://portal.ga.gov.au/">(https://portal.ga.gov.au/)</a>

The Roebuck Basin on Australia’s offshore north-western margin is the focus of a regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment being undertaken by the Offshore Energy Systems Section. This offshore program is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of the central North West Shelf and attract exploration investment to Australia. The recent oil and gas discoveries at Phoenix South 1 (2014), Roc 1 (2015-16), Roc 2 (2016), Phoenix South 2 (2016), Phoenix South 3 (2018), Dorado 1 (2018) and Dorado 2–3 (2019) in the Bedout Sub-basin demonstrate the presence of a petroleum system in Lower Triassic strata (Grosjean et al., 2021; Rollet et al., 2019). As part of this program, a range of organic geochemical analyses were acquired on petroleum fluids from the Dorado 1 and Roc 2 wells with these data released in this report.

Geoscience Australia's Australian National Hydrocarbon Geochemistry Data Collection comprises Oracle database tables from the Organic Geochemistry (ORGCHEM) schema and derivative information in the Petroleum Systems Summary database (Edwards et al., 2020, 2023; Edwards and Buckler, 2024). The ORGCHEM schema includes organic geochemistry, organic petrology and stable isotope database tables that capture the analytical results from sample-based datasets used for the discovery and evaluation of sediment-hosted resources. A focus is to capture open file data relevant to energy (i.e., petroleum and hydrogen) exploration, including source rocks, crude oils and natural gases from both onshore and offshore Australian sedimentary basins. The database tables also include complementary physical properties and complementary inorganic analyses on sedimentary rocks and hydrocarbon-based earth materials. The data are produced by a wide range of destructive analytical techniques conducted on samples submitted by industry under legislative requirements, as well as on samples collected by research projects undertaken by Geoscience Australia, other government agencies and scientific institutions. Some of these results have been generated by Geoscience Australia, whereas other data are compiled from service company reports, well completions reports, government reports, published papers and theses. The data is non-confidential and available for use by Government, the energy exploration industry, research organisations and the community. The Petroleum Systems Summary database stores the compilation of the current understanding of petroleum systems information, including the statistical evaluation of the analytical data by basin across the Australian continent. <b>Value: </b>These data in the ORGCHEM database tables comprise the raw organic geochemistry, organic petrological and stable isotopic values generated for Australian source rocks, crude oils and natural gases and is the only public comprehensive database at the national scale. The raw data are used as input values to other studies, such as basin analysis, petroleum systems evaluation and modelling, resource assessments, enhanced oil recovery projects, and national mapping projects. Derived datasets and value-add products are created based on calculated values and interpretations to provide information on the subsurface petroleum prospectivity of the Australian continent, as summarised in the Petroleum Systems Summary database. The data collection aspires to build a national scale understanding of Australia's petroleum and hydrogen resources. This data collection is useful to government for evidence-based decision making on sediment-hosted energy resources and the energy industry for de-risking both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon exploration programs, hydrogen exploration programs, and carbon capture, utilisation and storage programs. <b>Scope: </b>The database initially comprised organic geochemical and organic petrological data on organic-rich sedimentary rocks, crude oils and natural gas samples sourced from petroleum wells drilled in the onshore and offshore Australian continent, including those held in the Australian National Offshore Wells Data Collection. Over time, other sample types (e.g., fluid inclusions, mineral veins, bitumen) from other borehole types (e.g., minerals, stratigraphic including the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, and coal seam gas), marine dredge samples and field sites (outcrop, mines, surface seepage samples, coastal bitumen strandings) have been analysed for their molecular and stable isotopic chemical compositions and are captured in the databases. The organic geochemical database tables and derivative data compiled in the Petroleum Systems Summary database are delivered by web services and analytical tools in the <a href="https://portal.ga.gov.au/">Geoscience Australia Data Discovery Portal </a> and specifically in the <a href="https://portal.ga.gov.au/persona/sra">Source Rock and Fluid Atlas Persona</a>. These web services enable interrogation of source rock and petroleum fluids data within boreholes and from field sites and facilitate correlation of these elements of the petroleum system within and between basins. <b>Reference</b> Edwards, D.S., Buckler, T., Grosjean, E. & Boreham, C.J. 2024. Organic Geochemistry (ORGCHEM) Database. Australian Source Rock and Fluid Atlas. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/149422 Edwards, D., Hawkins, S., Buckler, T., Cherukoori, R., MacFarlane, S., Grosjean, E., Sedgmen, A., Turk, R. 2023. Petroleum Systems Summary database. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148979 Edwards, D.S., MacFarlane, S., Grosjean, E., Buckler, T., Boreham, C.J., Henson, P., Cherukoori, R., Tracey-Patte, T., van der Wielen, S.E., Ray, J., Raymond, O. 2020. Australian source rocks, fluids and petroleum systems – a new integrated geoscience data discovery portal for maximising data potential. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/133751.

<b> Legacy service retired 29/11/2022</b> This is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web service providing access to Australian onshore and offshore borehole data conforming to the GeoSciML version 4.0 specification. The borehole data includes Mineral Drillholes, Petroleum Wells and Water Bores along with a variety of others types. The dataset has been restricted to onshore and offshore Australian boreholes, and bores that have the potential to support geological investigations and assessment of a variety of resources.