The Exploring for the Future program is an initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia. As part of the Exploring for the Future program, this study aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum resource potential of northern Australia. The physical properties of organic matter in sedimentary rocks changes composition in an irreversible and often sequential manner after burial, diagenesis, catagenesis and metagenesis with increasing thermal maturity. Characterising these changes and identifying the thermal maturity of sedimentary rocks is essential for calculating thermal models needed in a petroleum systems analysis. This study presents organic petrology on 15 Proterozoic aged shales from the Velkerri and Barney Creek formations in the McArthur Basin and the Mullera Formation, Riversleigh Siltstone, Lawn Hill and Termite Range formations in the South Nicholson region. Qualitative maceral analysis of the 15 samples are described in addition to bitumen reflectance measurements. These samples were analysed at the Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria in June 2020. The results of this study can be used to improve our understanding of the thermal maturity and hydrocarbon prospectivity of Proterozoic aged sedimentary basins in northern Australia.

This short video summarises the value of Geoscience Australia's work to the discovery, development and export of Australia's mineral and energy commodities. The video is from a series of six films produced to communicate Geoscience Australia's value to the nation. Further information about the agency's work in this area can be found at http://www.ga.gov.au/value-to-the-nation

Poster describing synthetic thermal modelling and its application to geothermal exploration in Australia

The South Nicholson region of northwest Queensland and the Northern Territory is the focus of a regional hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment being undertaken by the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, an Australian Government initiative dedicated to increasing investment in resource exploration in northern Australia. This data release provides data from new digital photography, X-ray Computerised Tomography (XCT) scanning, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) testing and laboratory ultrasonic testing for 14 samples from stratigraphic and exploration wells drilled into the South Nicholson Basin and Lawn Hill Platform in the South Nicholson region described in Jarrett et al (2020). These samples were analysed at CSIRO Geomechanics and Geophysics Laboratory in Perth during May and June 2020.

The Onshore Basin Inventory is a summary of data and geological knowledge of hydrocarbon-prone onshore basins of Australia. Volume 1 of the inventory covers the McArthur, South Nicholson, Georgina, Wiso, Amadeus, Warburton, Cooper and Galilee basins. Under the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, Geoscience Australia expanded this work to compile the Onshore Basin Inventory volume 2, which covers the Officer, onshore Canning and Perth basins. These reports provide a whole-of-basin inventory of geology, petroleum systems, exploration status and data coverage. Each report also summarises aspects that require further work. The Onshore Basin Inventory has provided scientific and strategic direction for pre-competitive data acquisition under the EFTF energy work program. Here we provide an overview of the Onshore Basin Inventory, with emphasis on its utility in shaping the EFTF energy systems data acquisition and analysis program. <b>Citation:</b> Carr, L.K., Bailey, A.H.E., Palu, T.J. and Henson, P., 2020. Onshore Basin Inventory: building on Geoscience Australia’s pre-competitive work program with Exploring for the Future In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

This point dataset contains the major airport fuel storage and supply facilities in Australia.

Presentation delivered on 8 March 2012 at the Tasman Frontier Petroleum Industry Workshop, Geoscience Australia, Canberra.

<p>In the South Nicholson region of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the Paleoproterozoic Isa Superbasin and the Mesoproterozoic South Nicholson Basin have the potential to host both conventional and unconventional petroleum systems (Gorton & Troup, 2018). The region remains poorly explored however with only 19 petroleum wells drilled in total (Carr et al., 2016). Although nine stratigraphic intervals are described as potential source rocks, data coverage is extremely limited and a large proportion of the available data is old and of poor quality. To more comprehensively characterise these organic rich source rocks, higher resolution coverages of pre-competitive geochemical data is required (Jarrett et al. 2018). <p>This report contains the total organic carbon (TOC) content and Rock-Eval pyrolysis data of 674 samples selected from twelve drill cores housed in the Geological Survey of Queensland’s Brisbane core repository including Amoco DDH 83-1, Amoco DDH 83-2, Amoco DDH 83-3, Amoco DDH 83-4, Argyle Creek 1, Armraynald 1, Burketown 1, Desert Creek 1, Egilabria 1, Egilabria 2 DW1, Egilabria 4, Morstone 1, MORSTONE DDH1. This data was generated at the Isotope and Organic Geochemistry Laboratory at Geoscience Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future program.

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.

This GIS package contains interpreted boundaries and thalwegs (valley bottoms) of Cenozoic palaeovalley systems derived from the Frome AEM Survey dataset. Palaeovalley boundaries are by Adrian Fabris, DMITRE, and include interpreted Eyre Formation sediments only. Palaeovalley thalwegs are by Ian Roach, GA, and include interpreted Eyre Formation and Namba Formation sediments. This dataset supports the Frome AEM Survey interpretation record, GA Record 2012/40-Geological Survey of South Australia Report Book 2012/00003.