Cooper Basin
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Publicly available baseline surface water data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This data guide captures existing knowledge of the catchments and watercourses overlying the Cooper Basin, including streamflow quality and quantity, inundation, and climatological data. The Cooper Basin underlies 3 surface water catchments: the Diamantina River, Cooper Creek and Bulloo River. All 3 rivers follow a similar flow pattern, with most of the run-off generated in the higher rainfall headwater areas (outside the Cooper Basin) before flowing down into extensive floodplains and ending up in terminal lake systems. The data on the catchments overlying the Cooper Basin have been summarised at a point in time to inform decisions on resource development activities. Key data sources are the Water Monitoring Information Portal (Queensland Government), Water Data Online (Bureau of Meteorology), DEA Water Observations (Geoscience Australia) and Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network.
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Publicly available geology data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This web service summarises the geology of the Cooper Basin.
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Publicly available groundwater data have been compiled to provide a common information base to inform environmental, resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This web service summarises salinity, water levels, resource size, potential aquifer yield and surface water–groundwater interactions for the Lake Eyre Basin located within the Cooper Basin region.
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Publicly available groundwater data have been compiled to provide a common information base to inform environmental, resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This web service summarises salinity, water levels, resource size, potential aquifer yield and surface water–groundwater interactions for the Lake Eyre Basin located within the Cooper Basin region.
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Publicly available baseline ecology data are compiled to provide a common information base for environmental, resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This web service summarises existing knowledge of the ecosystems and environmental assets in the Cooper Basin region.
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This seminar will showcase new results from the late Carboniferous to Middle Triassic Cooper Basin that challenge existing notions on its evolution, new insights on sediment dispersal pathways and consequently its resource potential. Topics that will be explored include how the Cooper Basin is similar to other failed rift basins and how depositional facies between each of the half-grabens/troughs are influenced by the relationship between sediment supply and the rate of creation of accommodation. Of note are new precise dates and carbon isotope data from the thick coals of the Patchawarra Formation suggesting prolonged and uninterrupted peat accumulation for millions of years during the latter stages of the late Palaeozoic ice age – no modern analogue exists to compare the conditions and longevity of these ancient mires. Come along to the talk to learn more about the Cooper Basin.
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Publicly available geology data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This web service summarises the geology of the Cooper Basin.
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Publicly available geological data in the Cooper Basin region are compiled to produce statements of existing knowledge for natural hydrogen, hydrogen storage, coal and mineral occurrences. This web service summarises mineral potential in the Cooper Basin region.
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Publicly available groundwater data have been compiled to provide a common information base to inform environmental, resource development and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This web service summarises salinity and water levels for the Cooper Basin located within the Cooper Basin region.
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An assessment of tight, shale and deep coal gas prospectivity of the Cooper Basin has been undertaken as part of the Australian Government’s Geological and Bioregional Assessment Program. This aims to both encourage exploration and understand the potential impacts of resource development on water and the environment. This appendix presents a review of the regional petroleum prospectivity, its exploration, and the characterisation and analysis of shale, deep coal and tight gas in Carboniferous–Permian Gidgealpa Group of the Cooper Basin. The Cooper Basin is Australia’s premier onshore conventional hydrocarbon-producing province providing domestic gas for the East Coast Gas Market. As of December 2014, the Cooper and Eromanga basins have produced 6.54 Tcf of gas since 1969. The basins contain 256 gas fields as well as 166 oil fields that are currently in production. Gas is predominantly reservoired in the Cooper Basin, whereas the overlying Eromanga Basin hosts mainly oil. Hydrocarbon shows are found in the reservoir units throughout the succession. Recently, exploration targeting a range of unconventional plays has gained momentum. Unconventional play types within the mainly Permian Gidgealpa Group include shale gas associated with the Patchawarra Formation and the Roseneath and Murteree shales, tight and deep coal gas accumulations within the Toolachee, Epsilon and Patchawarra formations and additional tight gas plays in the Daralingie Formation and Tirrawarra Sandstone. To date, at least 80 wells have been drilled to test shale, tight and deep coal gas plays. Given the basin’s existing conventional production, and its processing and pipeline infrastructure, these plays are well placed to be rapidly commercialised, should exploration be successful. A prospectivity confidence mapping workflow was developed to evaluate the regional distribution of key unconventional gas plays within the Gidgealpa Group. For each play type, key physical properties were identified and characterised. The specific physical properties evaluated include formation extents, source rock properties (net thickness, TOC, quality and thermal maturity), reservoir characteristics (porosity, permeability, gas saturation and brittleness), regional stress regime and overpressure. Parameters for mappable physical properties were individually classified to assign prospectivity rankings. Individual properties were then multiplied together produce formation and play-specific prospectivity confidence maps. Non-mappable criteria were not integrated into the prospectivity mapping but were used to better understand the geological characteristics of the formations. Overall, both source and reservoir characteristics were found to be moderately to highly favourable for all play types assessed. Abundant source rocks are present in the Gidgealpa Group across the Cooper Basin. The Toolachee and Patchawarra formations are the richest, thickest and most extensive source rocks, with good to excellent source potential across their entire formation extents. Net shale, coal and sand thicknesses also demonstrate an abundance of potential reservoir units in the Gidgealpa Group across the basin. The predominantly fluvial Toolachee Formation is thickest in the Windorah Trough and Ullenbury Depression. Average effective porosity for assessed tight gas plays ranges from 6.7 % in the fluvio-deltaic to lacustrine Epsilon Formation to 7.8% in the Toolachee Formation. Based on an assessment of the brittleness of the shales and coaly shales, the Patchawarra Formation appears to be most favourable for hydraulic stimulation with an average Brittleness Index of 0.695, indicative of brittle rocks. This compares to the less brittle lacustrine Roseneath and Murteree shales have brittleness indices of 0.343 and 0.374, respectively. As-received total gas content is favourable, with averages ranging from 1.3 scc/g in the Patchawarra Formation to 1.6 scc/g for the Murteree Shale. The regional stress regime has an approximately east-west oriented maximum horizontal stress azimuth, resulting in predominantly strike-slip faulting to reverse faulting, depending on the depth, lithology and proximity of structures, e.g. GMI ridge. Significant overpressure is present at depths greater than 2800 m, especially in the Nappamerri and Patchawarra troughs. Overpressures are generally constrained to the Gidgealpa Group, with the Toolachee Formation being the youngest formation in which significant overpressure has been achieved. Based on a review of the geomechanical properties of the Cooper Basin sedimentary succession, it was found that stress variations within and between lithologies and formations are likely to provide natural barriers to fracture propagation between the gas saturated Permian sediments and the overlying Eromanga Basin. Prospectivity confidence maps were generated for six individual shale and deep coal plays and one combined tight gas play across the Gidgealpa Group. Comparison with key wells targeting shale, tight and deep coal gas plays, indicates that the prospectivity confidence mapping results are largely consistent with exploration activity to-date, with the highest prospectivity confidence for tight, shale and deep coal gas plays mapped in the Nappamerri, Patchawarra, Windorah, Allunga and Wooloo troughs and the southern Ullenbury Depression. Consequently, there is more confidence in the resultant maps in the southern Cooper Basin as more data was available here. Prospectivity confidence maps are relative, therefore a high prospectivity confidence does not equate to 100 % chance of success for a particular formation or play. The outputs of this regional prospectivity assessment identify areas warranting more detailed data collection and exploration and the assessment of potential impacts of resource development on water and the environment. The results also have the potential to encourage further exploration investment in underexplored regions of the Cooper Basin.