This publication is the successor to Oil and Gas Resources of Australia 2002 and continues as the definitive reference on exploration, development and production of Australia's petroleum resources. It covers exploration, reserves, opportunity for growth of oil and gas resources, development, coalbed methane resources, production, crude oil and shale oil and supporting information and statistics. It includes a forecast of Australia's crude oil and condensate production from 2004 to 2025, and sustainability indicators for petroleum resources. Information on Australia's petroleum data availability is also included and an estimate of Australia's undiscovered oil and gas potential and a review of developments in geological sequestration of carbon dioxide. The Appendices describe wells drilled and seismic surveys carried out in 2003. There is also a chronological listing of offshore and onshore oil and gas discoveries to 2003 listings of all petroleum platforms and pipelines, and a map showing all Australian petroleum exploration and development titles, with a key of title holders and interests as at March 2004. OGRA 2003 provides the background for much of the advice on petroleum resources given to the Australian government and is a key source for petroleum exploration, production and service companies, petroleum engineers and geologists, energy analysts, stockbrokers and share investors.

Resource estimates for individual mineral deposits reported by companies using the Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code are compiled in Geoscience Australia's national mineral resources database and used in estimating national resource inventories which are reported in categories of the National Mineral Resources classification system. The national inventory provides a long term national perspective of potentially mineable resources and the results are published online in 'Australia's Identified Mineral Resources'. Analyses of resource trends show that growth in Australia's resources have generally been strongly influenced by: - discoveries of new deposits, and extensions of resources at known deposits, - advances in metallurgical techniques and mining methods which have stimulated the exploration and development of new ore types and low grade deposits previously considered uneconomic, - availability of cheaper energy, - increases in prices of mineral commodities driven largely by the massive demand from China. From the early 1970s, Australia's iron ore mines have been based on large resources of direct shipping hematite ores in the Hamersley Basin. From 2003, Australia's Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) of iron ore grew to record levels as increased demand for iron ore generated renewed interest in magnetite ores. As a result, large increases in magnetite resources were recorded as development of large magnetite deposits in the Pilbara (Sino Iron project) and mid-west regions of WA (eg Karara deposit) commenced. Trends in Australia's EDR of black coal, gold and other major commodities are discussed.

This record contains the results of a geological framework study of the southern half of the Lord Howe Rise and adjacent areas, including the Tasman Basin and the New Caledonia Basin. The report particularly focuses on the geological evolution and the resource potential.

The critical success factors which control hydrocarbon prospectivity in the Otway Basin have been investigated using petroleum systems approaches. Greater than 99% of the hydrocarbon inventory within the Victorian Otway Basin has been sourced from Austral 2 (Albian-Aptian) source rocks and these accumulations are typically located either within, or within approximately 3,000 m of source rock kitchens which are at peak thermal maturity at present day. Importantly, the zones of greatest prospectivity are located where these source rocks have been actively generating and expelling hydrocarbons throughout the Late Tertiary, primarily as a result of sediment loading associated with progradation of the Heytesbury shelfal carbonates. This peak generation window occurs at an average depth of approximately 2,500-3,500 m 'sub-mud' across much of the basin, which has allowed prospective hydrocarbon fairways to be mapped out, thereby highlighting areas of greatest prospectivity. It is believed that the spatial proximity of the actively generating source rocks to the accumulations is due to several factors, which includes overall poor fault seal in the basin (success cases occur where charge rate exceeds leakage rate) and relatively complex and tortuous migration fairways (which means that large volumes of hydrocarbons are only focussed and migrate for relatively short distances). etc

Extended review of mineralexploration in Australia in 2010.

At its 4th meeting in Brisbane on 21st and 22nd August, the Copper and Bauxite Committee arranged a conference with Mr. J. Kruttschnitt, Managing Director of the Mt. Isa Mines, at which officers of the Department of Mines of Queensland were present, to discuss ways and means of quickly exploiting the recently indicated copper ore body situated in the Hanging Wall of the Black Star Lode at Mt. Isa Mine. At the request of the Committee, and following discussion of the details between all parties, Mr. Kruttschnitt made a proposal, which is submitted herewith.

The Committee has given consideration to the desire of the Government to put into production any property that can materially add to Australia's copper output within two years. As pointed out in another submission of even date, it seems probable that 5,000 tons of new copper p.a. can be obtained from a recently discovered ore body in the Mt. Isa Mines, production commencing in January, 1942, if the necessary capital loan is made as recommended. In addition, it seems likely that a worth while production could be obtained from other mines in the Cloncurry district. The principle potential sources of increased supply are Hampden Consols, Mt. Oxide and Trekelano, but many other smaller properties can also be looked to, provided some central treatment facilities are available.

Under the Australian Government's Energy Security Program, Geoscience Australia conducted a seismic survey and a marine reconnaissance survey to acquire new geophysical data and obtain geological samples in frontier basins along the southwest Australian continental margin. Specific areas of interest include the Mentelle Basin, northern Perth Basin, Wallaby Plateau and southern Carnarvon Basin. The regional seismic survey acquired 7300 km of industry-standard 2D reflection seismic data using an 8 km solid streamer and 12 second record length, together with gravity and magnetic data. These new geophysical datasets, together with over 7000 km of re-processed open-file seismic data, will facilitate more detailed mapping of the regional geology, determination of total sediment thickness, interpretation of the nature and thickness of crust beneath the major depocentres, modelling of the tectonic evolution, and an assessment of the petroleum prospectivity of frontier basins along the southwest margin. The scientific aim of the marine reconnaissance survey was to collect swath bathymetry, potential field data, geological samples and biophysical data. Together with the new seismic data, samples recovered from frontier basins will assist in understanding the geological setting and petroleum prospectivity of these underexplored areas.

This report describes the iterative methods used to create the seascapes, including a detailed appendix documenting the different datasets used in the different planning zones. Creating the seascapes is necessarily an iterative process whereby the available datasets are combined in different combinations, or added as they become available, using an unsupervised 'crisp' ISOClass classification in ERMapper. In each classification only biophysical properties that have consistent and definable relationships with the benthic biota and are known in sufficient detail across Australia's entire marine region are used to create the seascapes. An initial validation of the classification technique has been undertaken on a subset of the data for the shelf surrounding Tasmania using an alternative unsupervised 'fuzzy' classification. Results of this validation indicate that the unsupervised classification methodology provides consistent and reliable classes for defining the seascapes.

Invited paper by CEO.