Bremer Sub-basin, Australia: Evaluation of Petroleum Potential in a Frontier Basin Through Analyses of Sub-sea Dredge Samples  


Authors / CoAuthors

Boreham, C.J. | Barrett, A. | Blevin, J.E. | Borissova, I. | Bradshaw, B.E. | Exon, N. | Howe, R. | Mitchell, C. | Macphail, M. | Monteil, E. | Nicholson, C. | O'Leary, R. | Ryan, D. | Totterdell, J.M.

Abstract

The Bremer Sub-basin on the rifted southwestern continental margin of Australia is a frontier basin in which no wells have been drilled. The petroleum potential of such frontier basins is generally limited to theoretical assessments from seismic data and analogues. However, a series of submarine canyons have incised the Bremer Sub-basin, allowing geological sampling of the upper 2.5 km of the basin succession. Geochemical, petrographic and palaeontological analyses of 136 rock samples recovered from 30 dredge sites, integrated with interpretation from a regional seismic grid, indicate that the Bremer Sub-basin contains a succession of up to 7km of Jurassic to Tertiary age sediments containing the essential petroleum system elements (source, reservoir and seal) to generate and trap hydrocarbons. Source rock analyses indicate Early Cretaceous coaly and lacustrine organic facies have the best oil potential with hydrogen indices (HI) up to 370 mg hydrocarbons/g TOC. Similar fluvio-lacustrine organic facies are recognised sources for oil in the adjacent Perth and eastern Bight basins. Furthermore, the identification of late Early Cretaceous marine anoxic organic facies in the Bremer Sub-basin supports the concept of a local southern Australian margin origin for widespread coastal bitumens termed asphaltites. Berriasian to Hauterivian age strata within the Bremer Sub-basin have the greatest potential to reservoir hydrocarbons, where lacustrine mudstones overlie fluvial sandstones in anticlines and fault block traps. The largest anticline may be capable of trapping up to 500 million barrels of oil in-place (P50 estimate; 900 million barrels P10 estimate).

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nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

61757

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)  
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Australia

Keywords

  • External PublicationAbstract
( Theme )
  • continental margins
( Theme )
  • geology
( Theme )
  • organic geochemistry
( Theme )
  • palaeontology
( Theme )
  • sequence stratigraphy
( Theme )
  • marine
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Published_Internal

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2005-01-01T00:00:00

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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