The Roebuck Basin, Beagle and Barcoo Sub-basin well folio
Duy Nguyen A B , Nadege Rollet A , Emmanuelle Grosjean A , Dianne S. Edwards A , Steve Abbott A , Claire Orlov A , George Bernardel A , Chris Nicholson A , Andrew Kelman A , Kamal Khider A and Tamara Buckler AA Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: duy.nguyen@ga.gov.au
The APPEA Journal 59(2) 920-927 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18053
Accepted: 19 March 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
The Roebuck Basin and the adjoining Beagle and Barcoo sub-basins are underexplored areas on Australia’s North West Shelf that are undergoing renewed exploration interest since the discovery of oil at Phoenix South 1 in 2014 and subsequent hydrocarbon discoveries in the Bedout Sub-basin. A well folio of 24 offshore wells across the Beagle, Bedout, Rowley and Barcoo sub-basins has been compiled as part of Geoscience Australia’s hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment across the region. It consists of composite well log plots and well correlations that summarise lithology, lithostratigraphy, Geoscience Australia’s newly acquired biostratigraphic and geochemical data as well as results of petrophysical analysis. A revised sequence-stratigraphic interpretation, key petroleum system elements and drilling results are also documented. The wells dominantly target Triassic shoreward facies (Keraudren Formation) as the primary reservoir objective and Jurassic fluvial-deltaic (Depuch Formation) and/or Lower Cretaceous sandy deltaic facies as the secondary objective. The Keraudren Formation sandstones are sealed intra-formationally either by discontinuous units and/or by the regional Cossigny Member. The Jurassic Depuch Formation sandstones are sealed by regional Lower Cretaceous mudstones. Both charge and structure have been identified as critical issues in the Roebuck Basin. In the Beagle Sub-basin, seal integrity and migration pathways are also considered high risk. Well correlations have identified differences in the basin history and provide insights into the distribution of facies and other characteristics of the Jurassic and Triassic successions.
Keywords: geochemistry, source rocks, well data.
Duy (Victor) Nguyen is a Senior Petroleum Engineer in Geoscience Australia’s Resources Division, Energy Systems Branch, where he is working on the Browse and Roebuck basins. He holds BE and ME (Petroleum Engineering) degrees from the University of New South Wales. As part of his degrees, Victor researched the techno-economics of CO2 geological sequestration in Australia. Victor has five years of oil and gas industrial experience working for Schlumberger in Australia, Malaysia, India, the Middle East and Africa. Since 2009, Victor has worked on the assessment of the CO2 geological storage potential of the Bonaparte, Gippsland and Browse basins. |
Nadege Rollet is a Senior Geoscientist in Geoscience Australia’s Resources Division, Energy Systems Branch. Nadege is currently investigating the petroleum prospectivity of the central North West Shelf of Australia. Nadege graduated from the University of Paris – Pierre et Marie Curie (France) where she obtained a MSc and a PhD (1999) in Geology and Geophysics. Her studies focussed on the structural framework and geodynamics of the Ligurian Sea (western Mediterranean). Since joining Geoscience Australia, Nadege has contributed to marine surveys around Australia, assessments of the petroleum prospectivity, seepage studies and CO2 storage of Australian sedimentary basins. Nadege is a member of PESA. |
Emmanuelle Grosjean is a Senior Geochemist in Geoscience Australia’s Resources Division, Energy Systems Branch. Emmanuelle joined Geoscience Australia in 2005 as a Petroleum Geochemist to work on the detection of natural hydrocarbon seepage in Australia. She is currently involved in several studies that focus on understanding the petroleum prospectivity of Australia’s sedimentary basins. Emmanuelle received her PhD in Organic Geochemistry from the University of Strasbourg (France) in 2002 and subsequently spent three years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working on the Precambrian petroleum systems of the South Oman Salt Basin. |
Dianne Edwards is a Senior Petroleum Geochemist in Geoscience Australia’s Resources Division, Energy Systems Branch. Her scientific focus is on defining the petroleum systems of Australia’s petroliferous basins, including both conventional and unconventional play types. Dianne received her BSc (Hons) degree in Geology and MSc in Organic Petrology and Organic Geochemistry from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK). She was awarded her PhD from the University of Adelaide in 1996. Dianne is a member of PESA. |
Stephen (Steve) Abbott earned an Honours degree (1987) and PhD (1994) in Sedimentary Geology from Flinders and James Cook universities, respectively. He joined the Energy Systems Branch at Geoscience Australia in 2013, where he works on regional sequence-stratigraphic studies of the North West Shelf. Steve’s past roles include mineral exploration (mainly for sedimentary uranium in central Australia), teaching and research (at Southern Cross University, James Cook University, and the University of Tasmania) and regional mapping with the Northern Territory Geological Survey. Steve is Vice President of PESA ACT. |
Claire Orlov is a Geoscientist in the North West Margin Energy Systems Section in the Resources Division of Geoscience Australia. She gained her BSc Honours degree in Geology from the University of New South Wales in 2013 and joined Geoscience Australia in 2014 as part of the graduate program. Her current role is focussed on investigations of regional structural geology on the offshore North West Shelf of Australia. Claire is a member of PESA ACT. |
George Bernardel is a Geoscientist in the North West Margin Energy Systems Section in the Resources Division of Geoscience Australia. He gained his BSc (Honours) in Geophysics from the University of Sydney in 1986 and joined Geoscience Australia in 1995. His current role in the project is the seismic mapping of Triassic sequences across the Roebuck and adjoining basins of the North West Shelf. |
Chris Nicholson is a Senior Geoscientist at Geoscience Australia and Section Leader for the North West Margins Energy Studies. Chris and his team are currently undertaking a regional prospectivity study of the Triassic interval across the central North West Shelf, with a focus on Triassic and older source rock potential. Immediately before this, Chris was involved in hydrocarbon prospectivity studies and CO2 storage assessments in the Browse Basin. He has also worked on hydrocarbon prospectivity studies of Australian frontier offshore basins, including the northern Perth, Mentelle and Bight basins and the Vlaming and Bremer sub-basins. Chris graduated with a BSc (Hons) in geology from the Australian National University in 2000. Chris is a member of PESA. |
Andrew Kelman is a Biostratigrapher with the Resources Advice and Promotion Branch in the Resources Division at Geoscience Australia. He completed a BSc at the Australian National University in 1993 and an Honours degree in Paleontology and Ecostratigraphy at Macquarie University, Australia, in 2005. He joined Geoscience Australia as a Palaeontology Technician in 1994, moving to his current position with the Timescales project in 2006. His current work focusses on biostratigraphic contributions to the acreage release process and compiling biostratigraphic charts covering the Australian offshore and onshore basins. |
Kamal Khider is a Senior Research Scientist in Geoscience Australia’s Resources Division, Energy Systems Branch. He has a BSc, MSc and PhD (Stratigraphy and Sedimentology) and a PhD in Applied Geochemistry. Kamal has 30 years of academic and consultative experience in geosciences, working in many academic and industrial geological organisations in Australia, the Middle East and North Africa. He worked on the regional geological appraisal of the Tertiary Eocene–Oligocene–Miocene boundaries IGCP 174, regional geochemical assessment of the Cobar-Girilambone region in NSW and the Queensland Carbon Dioxide Geological Storage Atlas. Since 2007, he has worked on several of Geoscience Australia’s petroleum and carbon capture and storage projects. Kamal is a member of AAPG, GSA, SEPM and PESA. |
Tamara Buckler is a Data Manager in Geoscience Australia’s Resources Division, RD Information Services Branch. Tamara has worked in the Database Management section since commencing work with the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO) in 1996. Tamara has completed Data Management and Oracle training and manages several corporate Oracle databases, including the petroleum geochemistry database. |
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