This report presents the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury porosimetry analyses on 1 whole core sample from the GSWA Waukarlycarly 1 stratigraphic well drilled in the Canning Basin. The well was drilled as part of a co-funded collaboration between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) aimed at gathering new subsurface data on the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources in the southern Canning Basin. The collaboration resulted in the acquisition of the Kidson Deep Crustal Seismic Reflection Survey in 2018; and the drilling of deep stratigraphic well GSWA Waukarlycarly 1, located along the Kidson Sub-basin seismic line within the Waukarlycarly Embayment in 2019 (Figure 1). GSWA Waukarlycarly 1 reached a total depth of 2680.53 m at the end of November 2019 and was continuously cored through the entire Canning Basin stratigraphy. Coring was complemented by the acquisition of a standard suite of wireline logs and a vertical seismic profile. The work presented in this report constitutes part of the post well data acquisition. The purpose of the SEM analysis was to determine mineralogy and textural relationships between grains, verify the presence of organic material at the micro-scale, document i) the presence of diagenetic alterations to the detrital mineral assemblage and ii) eventual distribution of visible pores. Additionally, mercury injection capillary pressure porosimetry (MICP) was used to assess interconnected porosityand pore size distribution.

Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is an Australian Government initiative focused on gathering new data and information about potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources across northern Australia. This area is generally under-explored and offers enormous potential for industry development, as it is advantageously located close to major global markets, infrastructure and hosts many prospective regions. In June 2020, the Hon Keith Pitt MP, Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia, announced a four year extension to this program with an expansion in scope to cover the whole of Australia. The energy component of EFTF aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum potential of frontier Australian basins. Building an understanding of geomechanical rock properties is key to understanding both conventional and unconventional petroleum systems as well as carbon storage and sedimentary geothermal systems. Under EFTF, Geoscience Australia has undertaken geomechanical work including stress modelling, shale brittleness studies, and the acquisition of new rock property data through extensive testing on samples from the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic South Nicholson region of Queensland and the Northern Territory and the Paleozoic Kidson Sub-basin of Western Australia. These analyses are summarised herein. Providing baseline geomechanical data in frontier basins is essential as legacy data coverage can often be inadequate for making investment decisions, particularly where unconventional plays are a primary exploration target. As EFTF increases in scope, Geoscience Australia anticipates expanding these studies to encompass further underexplored regions throughout Australia, lowering the barrier to entry and encouraging greenfield exploration. <b>Citation:</b> Bailey Adam H. E., Jarrett Amber J. M., Wang Liuqi, Dewhurst David N., Esteban Lionel, Kager Shane, Monmusson Ludwig, Carr Lidena K., Henson Paul A. (2021) Exploring for the Future geomechanics: breaking down barriers to exploration. <i>The APPEA Journal </i><b>61</b>, 579-587. https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20039

The Neoproterozoic–Paleozoic Officer Basin, located in South Australia and Western Australia, remains a frontier basin for energy exploration with significant uncertainty due to a paucity of data. As part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, the objective of this study is to derive the petrophysical properties and characterise potential reservoirs in the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian sedimentary succession in the Officer Basin through laboratory testing, and well log interpretation using both conventional and neural network methods. Laboratory measurements of forty-one legacy core samples provide the relationships between gas permeability, Klinkenberg corrected permeability, and nano-scale permeability, as well as grain density, effective and total porosity for various rock types. Conventional log interpretation generates the volume fraction of shale, effective and total porosity from gamma ray and lithology logs. Self-organising map (SOM) was used to cluster the well log data to generate petrophysical group/class index and probability profiles for different classes. Neural network technology was employed to approximate porosity and permeability from logs, conventional interpretation results and class index from SOM modelling. The Neoproterozoic-Cambrian successions have the potential to host both conventional and tight hydrocarbon reservoirs. Neoproterozoic successions are demonstrated to host mainly tight reservoirs with the range in average porosity and geometric mean permeability of 4.77%-6.39% and 0.00087-0.01307 mD, respectively, in the different sequences. The range in average porosity and geometric mean permeability of the potential Cambrian conventional reservoirs is 14.54%-26.38% and 0.341-103.68 mD, respectively. The Neoproterozoic shales have favourable sealing capacities. This work updates the knowledge of rock properties to further the evaluation of the resource potential of the Officer Basin. Published in The APPEA Journal 2022 <b>Citation:</b> Wang Liuqi, Bailey Adam H. E., Carr Lidena K., Edwards Dianne S., Khider Kamal, Anderson Jade, Boreham Christopher J., Southby Chris, Dewhurst David N., Esteban Lionel, Munday Stuart, Henson Paul A. (2022) Petrophysical characterisation of the Neoproterozoic and Cambrian successions in the Officer Basin. <i>The APPEA Journal</i><b> 62</b>, 381-399. https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21076