Product catalogue
Origin and use of helium in Australian natural gases
Over 800 natural gases representative of Australia's hydrocarbon-producing sedimentary basins have been analyzed for their helium abundance and around 150 gases for their helium isotopic composition (supplemented by isotopic compositions of the higher noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe). Helium shows abundance up to over 10% with the highest values in the Amadeus Basin (central Australia), while <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratios range from around 0.01 to 4.2 Ra (Figure 1). The Gunnedah Basin of south-east Australia and the Bass and Otway basins in southern Australia show the highest <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratios, indicating a significant mantle contribution. Interestingly the adjacent Gippsland Basin has slightly lower <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratios. The associated CO<sub>2</sub> has a relatively low abundance in the Gunnedah Basin (highest <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratio) compared to some extreme concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> in the Otway Basin, which are associate with recent volcanism. The onshore Bowen and Cooper basins of eastern Australia, where natural gases are predominately sourced from Permian coals, show intermediate <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratios with the former having a higher mantle contribution. At the other end of the spectrum, low <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratios characterize natural gases of the Bonaparte, Browse, Carnarvon and Perth basins in northern and south-western Australia where radiogenic helium predominates. The minor mantle contribution that is inferred from the He isotopes in these regions has resulted from the limited volcanic activity and igneous intrusions throughout the basins' evolution. The accompanying high CO<sub>2</sub> contents of some of these gases, together with their carbon isotopic composition, infer an inorganic source most likely from thermal decomposition of carbonates.
The geochemical data suggest that the origin of helium in Australian natural gas accumulations is region specific and complex with the component gases originating from multiple sources. The relative low CO<sub>2</sub>/<sup>3</sup>He ratio for many natural gases indicates a systematic loss of CO<sub>2</sub> from most basins. The process by which CO<sub>2</sub> has been lost from the system is most likely associated with precipitation of carbonates (Prinzhofer, 2013). The age of the source (or reservoir) rock has a primary control on the helium content with radiogenic <sup>4</sup>He input increasing with residence time (Figure 1).
With the recent acceleration in the exploitation of Australia's enormous reserves of natural gas, the LNG processing plants in western, northern and eastern Australia offer the opportunity to commercialize helium in gases with as low as 0.1% He. However, a key factor to the gases monetary value is its inherent N<sub>2</sub> content. From the <sup>15</sup>N/<sup>14</sup>N ratios, N<sub>2</sub> associated with mineral decomposition severely impacts the economics of helium extraction.
Presented at the 2017 International Meeting in Organic Geochemistry (IMOG)
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2016-12-21T00:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2025-01-09T00:50:45
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/112901
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author Boreham, C.
MEG Internal Contact Author Edwards, D.
MEG Internal Contact Author Poreda, R.
External Contact Author Henson, P.
MEG Internal Contact
- Name
-
International Meeting in Organic Geochemistry (IMOG), 17-22 September 2017, Florence, Italy
- Purpose
-
Presentation at International Meeting in Organic Geochemistry, Italy 17-22 September 2017
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact Point of contact Boreham, C.
MEG Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
Temporal element
- Time period
- 2016-12 2017-09
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
-
Product data repository: Various Formats
- Protocol
-
FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY
- Name of the resource
-
Data Store directory containing the digital product files
- Description
-
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
-
-
EARTH SCIENCES
-
- Feature type
-
-
Helium
-
natural gas
-
isotopes
-
- Keywords
-
-
Amadeus Basin
-
Bass Basin
-
Bonaparte Basin
-
Bowen-Surat basins
-
Browse Basin
-
Canning Basin
-
Cooper-Eromanga basins
-
Gippsland Basin
-
Gunnedah Basin
-
Otway Basin
-
Perth Basin
-
Northern Carnarvon
-
Timor Sea
-
Organic geochemistry
-
Resource potential
-
- Keywords
-
-
Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
- Other constraints
-
© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
-
Download Presentation (pptx) [4.4 MB]
Download Presentation (pptx) [4.4 MB]
- Distribution format
-
-
4.4 MB
- File decompression technique
-
nil
-
- OnLine resource
-
Link to abstract
Link to abstract
- Distribution format
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
Presented at the 2017 International Meeting in Organic Geochemistry (IMOG)
- Hierarchy level
- Document
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/f42a8a4f-b9f0-45b4-9783-993468859432
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Boreham, C.
MEG Internal Contact Point of contact Boreham, C.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
-
Conference Abstract
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/112901
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-11-28T03:38:42.492Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-11-28T03:26:35.29Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-11-28T03:24:32.725Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2016-12-21T10:47:51
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-11-28T03:38:49.696Z
Metadata standard
- Title
-
AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-3
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
-
Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551