Fault-seal potential of the Palaeozoic in the northwest Canning Basin

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Julian Strand ◽  
Antoine Vaslin ◽  
Laurent Langhi
Keyword(s):  
Injection Site ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Co2 Sequestration ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Early Permian ◽  
North West ◽  
Canning Basin ◽  
Price Point ◽  
Exploration Drilling ◽  
Gas Fields

As part of a Geological Survey of Western Australia organised review of the Canning Basin involving UWA and CSIRO, the fault-seal potential for the northwest Canning Basin has been analysed. This study has two foci: firstly identifying potential for fault-bound hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Early Permian (Poole Sandstone and Upper Grant Group). Secondly, James Price Point, 55 km north of Broome, is the chosen location for an LNG facility to service the northern North West Shelf gas fields. As such, the study aims to highlight potential CO2 sequestration reservoir sequences occurring inside 200 km of James Price Point, the economically feasible distance for CO2 delivery to an injection site. Historically, hydrocarbon exploration drilling in the Fitzroy Trough targeted anticlinal structures, which proved unsuccessful due to localised, but significant, erosion of the Permian sequence including the Noonkanbah Formation top-seal on anticlinal crests. Given there is potential for untested, fault-bound traps to exist, which might provide an alternative to the anticlinal traps, it will be useful to identify the distribution of shale-rich, top-seal and fault-seal prone sequences, and where these occur at suitable reservoir depths. The study shows the Early Permian sequences on the flanking terraces of the Fitzroy Trough commonly have suitable top-seal and fault-seal prone sediments. In wells analysed in the Fitzroy Trough itself, the Early Permian sequence is poorly represented, but Permo-Carboniferous sediments observed indicate some sealing potential might exist there. Moving south onto the Broome Platform and into the Wiluna Sub-basin, the Early Permian sequences still display some sealing potential, but Ordovician units might provide more suitable targets for sequestration in these areas.

LATERAL AND VERTICAL RANK VARIATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION

1978 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J Kantsler ◽  
G. C. Smith ◽  
A. C. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Sedimentary Basins ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Hydrocarbon Generation ◽  
Marked Rise ◽  
Canning Basin ◽  
Early Maturation ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Uplift And Erosion ◽  
Gas Fields

Vitrinite reflectance measurements are used to determine the vertical and lateral patterns of rank variation within four Australian sedimentary basins. They are also used to estimate palaeotemperatures which, in conjunction with present well temperatures, allow an appraisal of the timing of coalification and of hydrocarbon generation and distribution.The Canning Basin has a pattern of significant pre-Jurassic coalification which was interrupted by widespread uplift and erosion in the Triassic. Mesozoic and Tertiary coalification is generally weak, resulting in a pattern of rank distribution unfavourable to oil occurrence but indicating some potential for gas. The Cooper Basin also has a depositional break in the Triassic, but the post-Triassic coalification is much more significant than in the Canning Basin. The major gas fields are in, or peripheral to, areas which underwent strong, early, telemagmatic coalification whereas the oil-prone Tirrawarra area is characterized by a marked rise in temperature in the late Tertiary. The deeper parts of the Bass Basin underwent early coalification and are in the zone of oil generation, while most of the remaining area is immature. Inshore areas of the Gippsland Basin are also characterized by early coalification. Areas which are further offshore are less affected by this phase of early maturation, but underwent rapid burial and a sharp rise in temperature in the late Tertiary.

The V-Fields, Blocks 49/16, 49/21/, 48/20a, 48/25b, UK North Sea

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 861-870
Author(s):  
James Courtier ◽  
Hugh Riches
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Early Permian ◽  
The North ◽  
Recoverable Reserves ◽  
Production Wells ◽  
Exploration Drilling ◽  
Structural Relief ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Gas Fields ◽  
North And South

AbstractThe Vulcan, Vanguard, North and South Valiant gas fields are collectively known as the V-Fields and lie on the eastern flank of the Sole Pit Basin in the southern sector of the UK North Sea. They are contained within blocks 49/16, 49/21, 48/20a and 48/25b and are operated by Conoco (UK) Ltd. The first field to be discovered was South Valiant, in 1970, and the initial phase of exploration drilling continued until 1983, with the discovery of the North Valiant, Vanguard and Vulcan fields. Prominent faults and dip closures define the limits of the fields and gas is contained within aeolian sands of Early Permian age. The gross average reservoir thickness is approximately 900 ft with porosities ranging from 3-23% and permeabilities varying from 0.1 mD to 2 Darcies in producing zones. The development of the V-Fields consisted of drilling centrally located production wells in each field, targeting higher quality reservoir zones in areas of maximum structural relief. Initial gas-in-place is estimated at 2.6 TCF with recoverable reserves of about 1.6 TCF. The fields were brought on-stream in October 1988 and currently produce, as of November 1999, up to 260MMSCFD of gas through the LOGGS complex to the Conoco terminal at Theedle-thorpe, Lincolnshire.

An Early Permian brachiopod–gastropod fauna from the Calytrix Formation, Barbwire Terrace, Canning Basin, Western Australia

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo César Taboada ◽  
Arthur J. Mory ◽  
Guang-Rong Shi ◽  
David W. Haig ◽  
María Karina Pinilla
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Early Permian ◽  
Canning Basin

The petroleum prospectivity of the Oobagooma Sub-basin and adjacent Leveque Platform, North West Shelf, Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 563
Author(s):  
Paul Harrison ◽  
Chris Swarbrick ◽  
Jim Winterhalder ◽  
Mark Ballesteros
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
Canning Basin ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Exploration Drilling ◽  
Hydrocarbon Charge

The Oobagooma Sub-basin of the Roebuck Basin includes the offshore extension of the onshore Fitzroy Trough of the Canning Basin. Together with the Leveque Platform, it covers an area of approximately 50,000 km2, yet only 14 exploration wells have been drilled in the area to date, five of which were drilled in the past 30 years. The sub-basin contains sediments ranging in age from Ordovician to Recent. This study examines the petroleum prospectivity of a region that is one of the least explored on Australia’s North West Shelf. Recent exploration drilling has revived interest in the area, with the 2014 Phoenix South–1 oil discovery in the offshore Bedout Sub-basin and the 2015 Ungani Far West–1 oil discovery in the onshore Fitzroy Trough. The two most significant source rock sequences relevant to the Oobagooma Sub-basin are the Carboniferous Laurel Formation and the Jurassic section. The former interval is part of a proven petroleum system onshore and is the source of the gas discovered at Yulleroo and oil at Ungani and Ungani Far West. A thick Jurassic trough to the north of the Oobagooma Sub-basin is believed to be the source of the oil and gas in Arquebus–1A and gas in Psepotus–1. Hydrocarbon charge modelling indicates significant expulsion occurred during both the Cretaceous and Tertiary from both source intervals. Trap timing is generally favourable given that inversion structures formed in several episodes during the Late Jurassic to Late Tertiary. The Early Triassic, now proven to be oil prone in the Phoenix South area (Molyneux et al, 2015), provides an additional (albeit less likely) source for the Oobagooma Sub-basin. These rocks are thin to absent within the Oobagooma Sub-basin, so long-distance migration would be required from deep troughs to the west.

THE HYDROCARBON POTENTIAL OF THE PALAEOZOIC BASINS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Warris
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Early Carboniferous ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Structural Development ◽  
Hydrocarbon Migration ◽  
North West ◽  
Canning Basin ◽  
Made In ◽  
Carnarvon Basin

There are four main Palaeozoic Basins in Western Australia; the Perth Basin (Permian only), the Carnarvon Basin (Ordovician-Permian), the Canning Basin (Ordovician-Permian) and the Bonaparte Basin (Cambrian-Permian).The Perth Basin is a proven petroleum province with commercially producing gas reserves from Permian strata in the Dongara, Woodada and Beharra Springs gas fields.The Palaeozoic of the Carnarvon Basin occurs in three main sub-basins, the Ashburton, Merlinleigh and Gascoyne Sub-basins. No commercial petroleum discoveries ahve been made in these basins.The Canning Basin can be divided into the southern Ordovician-Devonian province of the Willara and Kidson sub-basins and Wallal Embayment and Anketell Shelf, and the northern Devonian-Permian province of the Fitzroy and Gregory sub-basins. Commercial production from the Permo-Carboniferous Sundown, Lloyd, West Terrace, Boundary oilfields and from the Devonian Blina oilfield is present only in the Fitzroy sub-basins.The Bonaparte Basin contains Palaeozoic strata of Cambrian-Permian age but only the Devonian-Permian is considered prospective. Significant but currently non-producing gas discoveries have been made in the Permian of the Petrel and Tern offshore gas fields.Based on the current limited well control, the Palaeozoic basins of Western Australia contain excellent marine and non marine clastic reservoirs together with potential Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous reefs. The dominantly marine nature of the Palaeozoic provides thick marine shale seals for these reservoirs. Source rock data is very sparse but indicates excellent gas prone source rocks in the Early Permian and excellent—good oil prone source rocks in the Early Ordovician, Late Devonian, Early Carboniferous and Late Permian.Many large structures are present in these Palaeozoic basins. However, most of the existing wells were drilled either off structure due to insufficient and poor quality seismic or on structures formed during the Mesozoic which postdated primary hydrocarbon migration from the Palaeozoic source rocks.With modern seismic acquisition and processing techniques together with a better understanding of the stratigraphy, structural development and hydrocarbon migration, the Palaeozoic basins of Western Australia provide the explorer with a variety of high risk, high potential plays without the intense bidding competition currently present along the North West Shelf of Australia.

The V-Fields, Blocks 49/16, 49/21, 48/20a, 48/25b, UK North Sea

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 497-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Early Permian ◽  
Eastern Flank ◽  
Southern Sector ◽  
Recoverable Reserves ◽  
Exploration Drilling ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Gas Fields

AbstractThe Vulcan, Vanguard, North Valiant and South Valiant gas fields (collectively known as the 4 V-Fields) lie on the eastern flank of the Sole Pit Basin in the southern sector of the UK North Sea. They are contained within Blocks 49/16, 49/21, 48/25b and are operated by Conoco (UK) Limited. The first field to be discovered was South Valiant, in 1970 and exploration drilling continued until 1983 with the discovery of North Valiant, Vanguard and Vulcan Fields. Prominent faults and dip closures define the limits of the fields, and gas is contained within reservoir sands of Early Permian age, which are of desert origin. The gross average reservoir thckness is about 890 feet and porosities vary from 3-23% with permeabilities in producing zones varying from 0.1 md to 1950 md. Initial gas in place is estimated at 2.6 TCF with recoverable reserves of about 1.7 TCF. The fields were brought on-stream in October 1988 and produce, on average 325 MMSCFD of gas through the LOGGS complex to the Conoco/Britoil terminal at Theddlethorpe. Lincolnshire.

Paleomagnetism of Upper Devonian reefal limestones, Canning basin, Western Australia

1987 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 138 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. F. HURLEY ◽  
R. VAN DER VOO
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Upper Devonian ◽  
Canning Basin
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