The hydrocarbon potential of the 2016 proposed Offshore Acreage Release Areas for petroleum exploration
Thomas Bernecker A , Aaron Heugh A , Karen Higgins A and Ryan Owens AGeoscience Australia
The APPEA Journal 56(1) 451-482 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ15033
Published: 2016
Abstract
The Australian Government usually releases new offshore exploration acreage once a year. The proposed 2016 Release Areas are located across various offshore hydrocarbon provinces and include mature basins with ongoing oil and gas production as well as exploration frontiers. In support of the annual acreage release, Geoscience Australia provides a variety of geological information with an emphasis on basin evolution, stratigraphic frameworks, and overviews of hydrocarbon prospectivity. Geoscience Australia’s petroleum geological studies are aimed at the evolution of hydrocarbon-bearing basins at a regional scale, and include a review of source rock occurrences, their distribution and geochemical characters.
Following the recent oil discovery in the Roebuck Basin, a strong focus of Geoscience Australia’s work is being placed on the Triassic period, and any new findings will directly underpin the release of new exploration acreage.
Recent updates to stratigraphic frameworks and new results from geochemical studies are regularly published, and are used by Geoscience Australia for prospectivity assessments. Furthermore, the Australian Government continues to assist offshore exploration activities by providing ready access to a wealth of geological and geophysical data.
Thomas (Tom) Bernecker is a sedimentologist/petroleum geologist who holds a MSc from the University of Aachen (Germany) and a PhD from Melbourne’s La Trobe University. He has worked on various coal- and hydrocarbon-bearing basins in Europe and later in Australia where his initial focus was on the petroleum geology and hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Gippsland and Otway basins. Tom joined Geoscience Australia (GA) in 2007 where he now manages the Offshore Petroleum Acreage Release and Promotion project. Member: PESA, SEPM and SEAPEX. tom.bernecker@ga.gov.au |
Aaron Heugh is a Petroleum Geologist in GA’s Resources Division. He gained his BSc (Hons) in sedimentary petrology and geochemistry from the University of Canberra and Australian National University (ANU). Aaron completed a MSc in petroleum exploration geoscience from Curtin University of Technology and the Australian School of Petroleum (ASP). He will graduate with a Master of Petroleum Engineering from ASP in 2016. Aaron joined GA in early 2015, after 10 years of broad oilfield experience, including roles as a wireline engineer, log analyst and exploration geologist. Since joining GA he has been involved in petroleum acreage release products and related basin studies. Aaron also provides geoscientific advice to NOPTA on well logs, associated data and reports, and petroleum operations. Member: SPE, PESA, AAPG, and ASEG. Aaron.Heugh@ga.gov.au |
Karen Higgins is a geologist who has worked with GA for 16 years, specialising in basin analysis for petroleum exploration and CO2 sequestration. Karen is presently working in the Energy Systems Group, focusing on the offshore North West Shelf of Australia. She received a BSc (Hons) geology degree from ANU in 2002. Member: PESA. karen.higgins@ga.gov.au |
Ryan Owens is a junior geoscientist in GA’s Resources Division, Energy Systems Branch. He graduated from ANU in 2007 with a BSc in geology (Hons). Subsequently he worked in mineral exploration before undertaking a PhD in paleoceanography at the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU. Ryan joined the northern Houtman Sub-basin prospectivity study in 2015 after completing the Geoscience Australia graduate program. Member: PESA. ryan.owens@ga.gov.au |
