This Oil and Gas Resources of Australia 2008 publication is the successor to Oil and Gas Resources of Australia 2007 and continues as the definitive reference on exploration, development and production of Australia's petroleum resources. The tables describe: - wells drilled - seismic surveys - petroleum discoveries - petroleum reserves - production and development, including forecasts of crude oil and condensate from 2009 to 2025 and a listing of offshore facilities

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Australia has a thriving oil and gas industry with expanding infrastructure and many exploration opportunities. Geologically the country contains potential for large oil and gas discoveries with extensive sedimentary basins. Australia is also one of the world leaders in providing low cost geological data with an open Acreage Release process and competitive taxation regimes. Politically Australia is very stable with a very high standard of living and a long-standing democratic culture based on the rights of the individual and the rule of the law. There is a free market philosophy which welcomes foreign investment - Australia has no mandatory local equity requirements and has no government owned oil companies. Government facilitation of investment includes fast-tracking of approvals processes for major projects. This CD provides some basic Australia data including: Oil and Gas Resources of Australia 2003 This publication is the definitive reference on exploration, development and production of Australia's petroleum resources. It covers exploration, reserves, undiscovered 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 up to the year 2020, and sustainability indicators for petroleum resources. Information on Australia's petroleum data availability is also included. An estimate of Australia's undiscovered oil and gas potential and a review of geological sequestration of carbon dioxide in Australia is included. Australian Research and Promotional Material Australian research includes research papers for Australia, Australia regions (Northwest Shelf and the Southern Margin) and CO2 Sequestration. Promotional materials refer to pamphlets which outline geological products available from Geoscience Australia and contacts for obtaining these products. This material is grouped by region with the research papers. Geoscience Australia Online Databases Demonstration The Geoscience Australia Petroleum Databases Demonstration is a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation containing instructions on how to use Geoscience Australia's online Petroleum Databases located at: www.ga.gov.au/oracle/apcrc/ This output represents the data which is considered open file and commercial-in-confidence. Petroleum Databases available at Geoscience Australia include: the Australian Geological Provinces Database, the Petroleum Information Management System (PIMS) GIS , the National Petroleum Wells Database and the National Geoscience GIS

Using numerous illustrations this comprehensive black and white resource describes the formation, trapping and uses of natural gas as a non-renewable energy source. The exploration and recovery methods of gas are described, as are Australia's natural gas potential and environmental issues such as greenhouse gases. This 110 page booklet includes student activities with suggested answers. Suitable for secondary Years 9-12.

A range of geophysical indicators have been used to infer the presence of shallow gas in the Arafura Sea. The existence of shallow gas has been confirmed by the analysis of core material obtained during the survey. This sampled gas has a microbial origin related to decay of organic matter in Holocene mud-filled channels. However, geophysical data indicates that another source of gas exists in deeper parts of the sedimentary section and this gas appears to be migrating up from depth. Intense pockmark fields (~350/km2) are often developed above the mud-filled channels but they have also been recorded away from these channels. The development and density of the pockmark fields appears to be related to sea bed sediment type, microbial gas production within the mud-filled channels and supply of fluids from deeper within the sedimentary section. Correlation of sub-bottom profile data with conventional seismic data also indicates that there are links between deep first-order Proterozoic faults, second-order Jurassic faults and third-order faults to sea bed observed in sub-bottom profiles. The detailed sea bed mapping carried out during the survey has also shown correlations between habitat and biodiversity of various benthic fauna. Areas of high biodiversity and abundance generally correlated with harder substrates. In these areas, sea whips and fans, soft corals, hydroids, crinoids and octocorals were frequently identified, with sessile benthos extending up to ~50cm in height. The extensive areas of soft substrate commonly exhibited low-relief benthos which often covered less than 5% of the surface area. Such areas were also frequently noted for pockmark fields and the general uniformity of the environment.

This study documents the natural gas compositions of accumulations on the Exmouth Plateau and adjacent Rankin Platform in the Carnarvon Basin, a proven super-giant gas province on the North West Shelf of offshore Western Australia. The Exmouth Plateau contains Australia's largest undeveloped gas resources. The primary reservoirs are the Middle Late Triassic Mungaroo Formation (Chrysaor, Dionysus, Geryon, Maenad, Orthrus and Urania discoveries), the Late Jurassic sands of the Dingo Claystone at Geryon and Io/Jansz, and the Early Cretaceous Barrow Group at Scarborough. The gas accumulations at Geryon, Io/Jansz, Maenad, Orthrus and Urania are dry, with condensate to gas ratios (CGRs) of about 3 bbls/MMscf, although they contain low proportions of wet gases (average 100*(C1/ C1-C5) = 93.4 %). These gases typically have low concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2 <2.6 %). The gas at Scarborough is extremely dry (100*(C1/C1-C5) = 99.9 %), with low concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2 = 0.4 %). The d13C isotopic value of methane is -42.3, signifying the bacterial alteration of a thermogenic gas (Boreham et al., 2001). Wet gas is produced from the Mungaroo Formation on the northern Rankin Platform, with some of the wettest gases occurring at Goodwyn (CGR = 143 bbls/MMscf) and Echo/Yodel (CGR = 235 bbls/MMscf). The Mungaroo reservoired gas is drier (CGR ~12 bbls/MMscf) in Gorgon, located on the southern Rankin Platform. The Gorgon and neighbouring West Tryal Rocks, Chrysaor and Dionysus accumulations have elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) contents with the concentration and isotopic enrichment of CO2 increasing from the shallower (CO2 = 8 %; d13C CO2 = -5) to the deeper (CO2 = 23 %; d13C CO2 = -3) reservoirs. The isotopically enriched CO2 may originate from either a magmatic source or from the thermal decomposition of limestones within the deeply buried Permian, Triassic and Early Jurassic sediments. Mixing of inorganic and organic CO2 could explain the concentration isotopic trend observed in these accumulations. Gas: gas correlations based on the carbon (d13C) and hydrogen (dD) isotopic compositions of individual hydrocarbons from methane to n-pentane (C1-C5) are shown in Figure 1. The Geryon 1, Jansz 1, Maenad 1A, Orthrus 1 and Urania 1 gases have similarly shaped d13C isotopic profiles that show little differentiation between ethane, propane and butane (Figure 1a). Such a flat isotopic profile is typical of a terrigenous gas source (James, 1990) and may indicate either different sources for the wet gases and methane or facies changes within the same source rock. The most likely primary source of the Exmouth Plateau hydrocarbon gases is the regressive fluvial deltaic Triassic Mungaroo Formation. The isotopic profiles of the Gorgon 3 and North Gorgon 6 (southern Rankin Platform) and Chrysaor 1 gases display an almost linear d13C n-alkane profile (Figure 1c) and imply a different source province from that of the other Exmouth Plateau gases, most probably from Triassic Jurassic sediments in the Barrow Sub-basin, as well as within the Rankin Platform. The carbon and hydrogen isotopic profiles of the Dionysus gas are most similar to the other Exmouth Plateau gases (Figure 1b, d); however, its high concentration of isotopically enriched CO2 is most similar to the gases from the Gorgon area, suggesting the mixing of multiple sources of gas from different depocentres into this accumulation.

Molecular and stable isotopic (carbon and hydrogen) analyses are being undertaken on fluid samples from offshore Australian gas accumulations, as part of a Geoscience Australia initiative to understand the origin, thermal maturity and degree of preservation of these economic resources. The geochemical data are available from Geoscience Australia's web site http://www.ga.gov.au/oracle/apcrc. Here, emphasis is placed upon documenting the natural gas compositions of the Exmouth Plateau and Exmouth Sub-basin (Fig. 1). It is apparent from the isotopic signatures of the non-combustible and combustible gases that several sources of gas are mixed within these accumulations, many of which have complex fill histories. These results were presented at the Combined National Conference of the Australian Organic Geochemists and the Natural Organic Matter Interest Group, Rottnest Island, Perth, WA, February 2006 (Edwards et al., 2006).

<p>The onshore Canning Basin in Western Australia is the focus of a regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment being undertaken by the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program; an initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia. The four-year program led by Geoscience Australia focusses on the acquisition of new data and information about the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed beneath the surface in northern Australia and parts of South Australia. As part of this program, significant work has been carried out to deliver new pre-competitive data including new seismic, drilling of a stratigraphic well and the geochemical analysis of petroleum recovered from exploration wells. <p>Current conventional remaining gas resources of the Canning Basin are deemed limited (0.2 TCF; AERA, 2018), whereas unconventional gas resources are inferred to be extremely high, with estimated recoverable resources for shale gas and tight gas being 452.3 TCF (5% of P50,Table 2; AREA, 2018). This disparity arises from the high degree of uncertainty of key geological factors, particularly the poor constraints on source rock volumetrics, the lack of understanding of the volume of gaseous hydrocarbons generated and the origin and degree of thermal maturity of the gases. Carbon isotopic data are scarce and hydrogen isotopic data are non-existent, even though numerous gas discoveries have been made across the Lennard Shelf, Broome Platform and Fitzroy Trough following the initial discovery at Pictor 1 in 1984 by BHP Petroleum (Cadman et al., 1993; Jonasson, 2001). Indeed, gas samples have only been available for analyses since the drilling campaign by Buru Energy in 2010, and more recently, mud gases collected in IsoTubes are routinely sampled during drilling and presented in well completion reports (e.g. Cyrene 1; Nicolay 1, Paradise Deepening 1, Theia 1, Yulleroo 3 and Yulleroo 4). <p>This component of the EFTF program, evaluates the molecular and isotopic composition of natural gases from petroleum wells and a hot-spring seep at Mount Wynne, to constrain the much publicised resource potential inferred in this basin. Interpretation of these data will also assist with in the determination of their origin, and hence increase our understanding of the Larapintine Petroleum Supersystem, as proposed by Bradshaw (1983) and Bradshaw et al. (1984). All gas analyses in this study were undertaken by Geoscience Australia’s Organic Geochemistry Laboratory.

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The article provides an annula update on Australia's energy scenarion, focussing on offshore oil and gas exploration and production and advertsing the current open acreage release round.