Geological overview of the 2021 offshore acreage release areas
Thomas Bernecker A B , Ryan Owens A , Andrew Kelman A and Kamal Khider AA Geoscience Australia, Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Canberra, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: tom.bernecker@ga.gov.au
The APPEA Journal 61(2) 294-324 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20113
Accepted: 25 May 2021 Published: 2 July 2021
Abstract
In 2021, a total of 21 areas were released for offshore petroleum exploration. They are located in the Bonaparte Basin, Browse Basin, Northern Carnarvon Basin, Otway Basin, Sorell Basin and Gippsland Basin. Despite COVID-19 negatively impacting the industry, participation in the acreage release nomination process was again robust. However, as has been the case in recent years, industry interest is focussed on those areas that are close to existing discoveries and related infrastructure. In tune with the Australian government’s resource development strategy, the areas being offered for exploration are likely to supply extra volumes of natural gas, both for export to Southeast Asian markets and domestically to meet the forecasted shortage in supply to eastern Australia. According to the 2019 implementation of a modified release process, only one period for work program bidding has been scheduled. The closing date for all submissions is Thursday, 3 March 2022. Geoscience Australia continues to support industry activities by acquiring, interpreting and integrating pre-competitive datasets that are made freely available in the context of the agency’s regional petroleum geological studies. As part of a multidisciplinary study, new data, including regional seismic and petroleum systems modelling, for the Otway Basin are now available. Also, a stratigraphic/sedimentological review of the upper Permian to Early Triassic succession in the southern Bonaparte Basin has been completed, the results of which are being presented at this APPEA conference. Large seismic and well data sets, submitted under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (OPGSSA), are made available through the National Offshore Petroleum Information Management System (NOPIMS). Additional data and petroleum-related information can be accessed through Geoscience Australia’s data repository.
Keywords: acreage release, Bonaparte Basin, Browse Basin, Northern Carnarvon Basin, Otway Basin, Sorell Basin, Gippsland Basin, petroleum exploration, hydrocarbon prospectivity, gas supply.
Thomas (Tom) Bernecker is a sedimentologist/petroleum geologist who holds an MSc from the RWTH Aachen (University of Aachen), Germany and a PhD from Melbourne’s La Trobe University. His research work included the development of depositional models for coal and hydrocarbon-bearing basins in NW Europe as well as facies and diagenetic studies of tectonically overprinted Devonian carbonate sequences in Australia. After a lectureship at the University of Melbourne, Tom joined the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Energy where his work was focused on the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Gippsland and Otway basins. Tom joined Geoscience Australia as the team leader for the onshore hydrocarbon project in 2007 and from 2009 onwards has managed the offshore acreage release program, including the promotion of investment opportunities in Australia’s oil and gas sector. Tom is currently the Director of the Energy Resources Advice and Promotion section in GA’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater division. He is a member of PESA, SEPM and SEAPEX. |
Ryan Owens is a geoscientist in Geoscience Australia’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Advice, Investment Attraction and Analysis Branch. He graduated from the Australian National University 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. Since joining Geoscience Australia through the graduate program in 2014, Ryan has contributed to a number of projects including the northern Houtman Sub-basin prospectivity study, the Geological and Bioregional Assessments of the Beetaloo and Cooper basins and the annual Acreage Release. He is a member of PESA and GSA. |
Andrew Kelman is a biostratigrapher in Geoscience Australia’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Advice, Investment Attraction and Analysis Branch. He completed a BSc at ANU in 1993 and an honours degree in paleontology and ecostratigraphy at Macquarie University, NSW, in 2005. He joined Geoscience Australia as a Palaeontology Technician in 1994, moving to his present position with the Timescales project in 2006. Andrew’s work is now focused on compiling biostratigraphic charts covering the Australian offshore and onshore basins and biostratigraphic contributions to the acreage release process. |
Kamal Khider is a senior geoscientist 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 long-standing 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 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 and SEPM. |
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