The Gippsland Basin: reprocessing reveals new opportunities in a ‘mature’ basin
Peter Baillie A C , Paul Carter B , Jarrad Grahame A , Joe Zhou A and Nigel Mudge AA CGG Services Pty Ltd, 1 Ord Street, West Perth, WA 6005, Australia.
B PC Energy, 349 Marmion Street, Cottesloe, WA 6011, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: peter.baillie@cgg.com
The APPEA Journal 59(1) 394-409 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18075
Submitted: 14 December 2018 Accepted: 4 January 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
Although still one of Australia’s most prolific hydrocarbon provinces, the Gippsland Basin is an enigma. The basin largely owes its success to a single play (top porosity below the regional seal), reflected in an anomalous creaming curve that shows no kick in production due to common ‘step-change’ events such as the application of 3D seismic or exploration of the deep water. It is believed the explanation can be found in depth imaging issues, which have been known in the basin for nearly half a century. Although the offshore basin is generally regarded as mature, the recent development of new imaging technologies has demonstrated solutions to the depth imaging issues.
Keywords: FWI, LSQPSDM, seismic attributes, seismic imaging issues.
Peter Baillie holds degrees from the University of Tasmania (BSc 1970, Geology) and Macquarie University in Sydney (MSc Hons 1988, Sedimentology and Basin Analysis). He has been employed by CGG since August 2012 where he is SVP Business Development in the Multi-Client and New Ventures Division. He has been actively involved with many professional associations and has held positions of Secretary of the Geological Society of Australia, Federal Treasurer of PESA, President of the AAPG Asia Pacific Region and President of SEAPEX. |
Paul Carter has over 38 years of oil and gas exploration, appraisal and development experience. Prior to establishing PC ENERGY Pty Ltd and joining RISC for a period of two years, Paul was a founding member of ISIS Petroleum Consultants. Paul has also held senior positions at Hudson Bay Oil, Minora Resources, WMC, Novus Petroleum Limited, Conoco Phillips and GSI and has been an independent international consultant since 1999. Paul specialises in seismic interpretation and has worked on a wide range of tertiary basins in Australia, South-east Asia, India, East and West Africa, Mongolia and South Asia. |
Jarrad Paul Grahame currently holds the position of Senior Geoscientist with CGG Multi-Client and New Ventures for the Asia-Pacific region. Jarrad completed a BSc in Exploration Geophysics at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia before joining the oil and gas exploration industry in 2010. Jarrad has extensive experience in seismic interpretation and integration of well and seismic datasets for both onshore and offshore basins, including clastic and carbonate resource plays. Jarrad has worked on basins in Australia, South-East Asia, Europe and North America, encompassing extensional, compressional and strike-slip tectonic environments. Jarrad is a member of PESA, SEG, SEAPEX and AAPG. |
Joe Zhou has more than 17 years’ industry experience with most of his technical work focussed on depth imaging, broadband processing and ocean bottom survey processing technologies. He started his career with Veritas DGC Houston office in 2001 after earning an MSc in Physics from Rice University. He then relocated to Singapore office in 2007 and has held the Processing Manager position for CGG Singapore Scope since 2013. Joe is now the Regional Technical Manager and the Imaging Manager for CGG Perth. |
Nigel Mudge graduated in 1995 from the University of Exeter in the UK with BSc (Hons) in Physics. He commenced work for CGG the same year in its London office as a Land Seismic Processing geophysicist. After three years, he accepted a transfer to CGG’s dedicated data processing centre in Muscat, Oman. He progressed from geophysicist to Team Leader of special projects, running test processing for the centre. In 2002, he moved to Perth, Western Australia to work as the seismic data processing Team Leader and was present during the acquisition of Veritas and Fugro. Nigel undertook roles as the Perth Imaging Centre Manager and Regional Sales and Marketing Manager for the Data Processing Division before a new challenge presented itself in marine seismic vessel sales in 2013. He is currently the Technical Projects Manager for CGG Multi-Client New Ventures, managing seismic acquisition and processing projects for the Asia Pacific region. |
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