As at January 1993, nineteen hydrocarbon accumulations, six of which are commercial, have been discovered in the Canning Basin. The commercial accumulations occur in Permian to Devonian reservoirs on an area of relatively shallow basement (Lennard Shelf) flanking the northern margin of the Fitzroy Trough. Oil is produced from Famennian reefs, associated drape structures, and four-way dip closures in Permo-carboniferous, Grant Group and Anderson Formation sandstones. The most likely sources of these hydrocarbons are Late Devonian and Carboniferous marine shales in the Fitzroy Trough kitchen area. The small size of the accumulations in the Canning basin (less than 0.5 million barrels of recoverable oil) precludes the development of large infrastructure projects. Oil is trucked to the storage and shiploading facilities at Broome and then shipped to the Kwinana oil refinery in Western Australia. On the southern margin of the Fitzroy Trough, oil and gas have been recovered from a transgressive Ordovician sequence of sandstones shales and carbonates. Although the Ordovician has yet to yield a commercial discovery, Devonian reef plays in the overlying section may enhance the attractiveness of Ordovician objectives in this area. To date, exploration effort in the basin has been largely directed to the northern, onshore Canning Basin. The offshore Canning and the Kidson Sub-basin remain underexplored. Higher risk plays in these areas have yet to be adequately tested.

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This year, the Commonwealth Government is offering 6 large exploration areas in the frontier Bight Basin. The release areas (Figure 1) are situated in the central Great Australian Bight off southern Australia, approximately 415 to 655 km west of Port Lincoln, South Australia and 250 to 530 km southwest of Ceduna, South Australia. The areas are located within the Ceduna Sub-basin, in the eastern part of the Bight Basin, in water depths ranging from 130 to 4600 m. At present, no permits are held in this part of the basin. The release areas range in size from 85 to 90 graticular blocks (6000 to 6395 km2), and bids for all 6 areas close on 29 April 2010. Most exploration drilling in the Bight Basin has focused on the margins of the Ceduna Sub-basin and the Duntroon Sub-basin to the southeast of the current release areas. Gnarlyknots 1A, drilled by Woodside Energy and partners in 2003, is the only well to have attempted to test the thick, prospective Ceduna Sub-basin succession away from the margins of the sub-basin. Unfortunately the well was not an exploration success, as it had to be abandoned due to deteriorating weather and ocean conditions without reaching all planned target horizons. In 2007, Geoscience Australia conducted a marine sampling survey in the Bight Basin that dredged a suite of organic-rich rocks of Cenomanian-Turonian age from the northwestern exposed edge of the Ceduna Sub-basin. Geochemical analyses have characterised these samples as world-class, oil-prone, marine potential source rocks. Seismic interpretation indicates that this interval can be mapped throughout most of the basin and is mature for oil and gas generation across much of the Ceduna Sub-basin.

No product available. Removed from website 25/01/2019

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The Capel and Faust basins lie at water depths of 1500-3000 metres, 800 km east of Brisbane. Geoscience Australia began a petroleum prospectivity study of these remote frontier basins with acquisition of reflection and refraction seismic, gravity, magnetic and multi-beam bathymetry data across an area of 87,000 km2 during 2006/07. The approach mapped a complex distribution of sub-basins through an integration of traditional 2D reflection seismic interpretation techniques with 3D mapping and gravity modelling. Forward and inverse gravity models were used to inform the ongoing reflection seismic interpretation and test the identification of basement. Gravity models had three sediment layers with average densities inferred from refraction velocity modelling of 1.85, 2.13, 2.31 t/m3 overlying a pre-rift basement of density 2.54 t/m3, itself considered to consist in part of intruded older basin material. Depth conversion of horizon travel times was achieved using a function derived from models of refraction data. Gravity modelling of the simple density model arising from the initial interpretation of reflection seismic data indicated a first order agreement between observed and calculated data. The second order misfits could be accounted for by a combination of adjustments to the density values assigned to each of the layers, localised adjustments to the basin depths, and heterogeneity in the basement density values. The study concluded that sediment of average velocity 3500 m/s exceeds 6000 m thickness in the northwest of the area, which is sufficient for potential petroleum generation.

The Bremer Sub-basin, which forms part of the Bight Basin off the southern coast of Western Australia, is a deep-water (100-4000 m water depth) frontier area for petroleum exploration. No wells have been drilled to test the sub-basin's petroleum potential, with company exploration limited to a regional seismic survey by Esso Australia Ltd in 1974. Early studies identified the Bremer Subbasin as a series of Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous half graben, which contain potentially prospective structures for trapping hydrocarbons. However, a lack of sub-surface geological data, along with the deep-water setting, discouraged exploration of this area for over 30 years. In 2003, the Bremer Sub-basin was identified as a key frontier area in Geoscience Australia's New Oil Program where new exploration opportunities might occur. Subsequently, Geoscience Australia's Bremer Sub-basin Study commenced in 2004 with an aim to determine if the sub-basin formed under suitable geological conditions to generate and trap large volumes of hydrocarbons.

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This arcview GIS data package is the third in a series of 3 of new potential field data and interpretations for the Great Australian Bight developed by AGSO and Desmond Fitzgerald & Associates. This data package encompasses an interpretation of primary and derived datasets in GIS format, and includes two reports in PDF format, on basement architecture and on regional petroleum geology of the Great Australian Bight.