Exploring unconventional plays in the Georgina Basin, central Australia: will the real Arthur Creek Formation hot shale please stand up!
Robbert Willink A and Mitch Allison ACentral Petroleum Limited.
The APPEA Journal 55(2) 430-430 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ14065
Published: 2015
Abstract
The search for hydrocarbons in the southern Georgina Basin in central Australia is now focused on assessing the unconventional potential of the Middle Cambrian lower Arthur Creek Formation.
Recent regional well correlation studies, supported by a review of nominated type sections and of regional seismic data, and integrating core-based sedimentological, palaeontological, chemostratigraphic and geochemical information, suggest that the organic rich hot shale at the base of this formation, encountered in wells drilled in the Dulcie Syncline, is not a correlative of the organic rich hot shale encountered in wells drilled in the Toko Syncline.
Although similar in lithofacies and mineralogy, the former is significantly older and is more restricted in geographic distribution to an area west of a prominent northwest to southeast trending shear zone in the basement.
This interpretation is contrary to correlations presented in recent publications on the geology and resource potential of the southern Georgina Basin by government agencies, various petroleum consultancy firms that have provided estimates of the volumetric potential of the unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the lower Arthur Creek Formation, and several petroleum companies actively exploring in the basin.
Any historical inference that simply assumed the lower Arthur Creek Formation hot shale in the Toko domain should be an attractive unconventional target because of the lithological properties of the lower Arthur Creek Formation hot shale observed in the Dulcie domain is not supported by these revised correlations. Pursuit of the basal lower Arthur Creek Formation unconventional play in the Dulcie Syncline and in the Toko Syncline should be done on their respective merits.
Robbert (Rob) Willink holds a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Tasmania and a PhD in geology from the Australian National University. He has more than 35 years of experience in the industry as a petroleum geologist and has worked for Shell in Australia, the Sultanate of Oman and in Turkey, and for the University of Adelaide, Sagasco and Origin Energy in Australia, before assuming his present role as an Exploration Advisor for Central Petroleum Ltd. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Queensland, and runs an industry training course under his own company, Investigative Exploration Pty Ltd. He is based in Brisbane, Queensland. |
Mitch Allison holds a BSc (Hons) degree in geology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada). He has more than nine years of experience in the oil and gas industry as a petroleum geologist, and has worked for Ember Resources in Canada, and Santos and Blue Energy in Australia, before assuming his present role as a geologist for Central Petroleum Ltd. He is based in Brisbane, Queensland. Member: PESA, SPE and the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG). |
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