Recent geological advances in the understanding of the Torres Basin
Michael SwiftLarus Energy Pty Ltd.
The APPEA Journal 53(2) 459-459 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ12070
Published: 2013
Abstract
The Torres Basin is a recently discovered Mesozoic basin in the Papuan Plateau, southeast Papua New Guinea. Newly acquired deepwater offshore seismic data and older regional data have been (re)interpreted with the view of defining structural regimes in line with the onshore geological maps and conceptual cross sections. A regional time-space plot has been developed to elucidate the breakup of the northeastern Australian Plate with a focus on the geological history of the Papuan Plateau, which holds the Torres Basin geological section. This in turn has led to a re-evaluation of the structural style and history of the southern coastal region incorporating the East Australian Early Cretaceous Island Arc; it highlights that a significant horizontal structural grain needs to be considered when evaluating the petroleum potential of the region.
The southern margin is characterised as a frontal thrust system, similar to the nearby Papuan Basin. A series of regional strike lines in conjunction with the dip lines is used to divide the region into prospective and non-prospective exploration play fairways. The role of transfer faults, basement-detachments faults, regional-scale thrust faults, and recent normal faulting is discussed in the compartmentalisation of the geological section. There is basement-involved anticlinal development on a large scale and a complementary smaller-scale thin-skinned anticlinal trend. These trends are characterised as having significant strike length and breadth. Anticlinal trap fairways have been defined and have similar size and distribution as that of the Papuan Basin.
Michael Swift is exploration manager at Larus Energy; he has more than 25 years of experience in oil and gas exploration. As a graduate of geology and geophysics, he obtained significant technical and geological exposure to all of Australia’s offshore basins while working in the Marine Division of the BMR for five years in the late 1980s. He concurrently developed a specialist skill in heat flow and basin modelling while undertaking his PhD at ANU. His onshore experience started with AGL Petroleum and then broadened with a geological and geophysical consultancy for 10 years. He is well versed in project management, data acquisition, processing, and interpretation. His primary skill set is in exploration, developing plays, leads, and prospects in frontier and mature basins. He has extensive experience in clastic rift and intra-cratonic basins in Australia, thrust-nappe carbonate plays of Papua New Guinea and Albania and carbonate reservoirs of Libya. Within Blue Energy Ltd, he was exploration manager, undertaking the conventional oil and gas exploration role as well as supporting the CBM development effort and directing the exploration team. As exploration manager and technical leader for Larus Energy Pty Ltd, he has been developing plays, leads, and prospects in the thrust basin of southeastern Papua New Guinea. He is an associate professor at the University of Queensland. |
