Cretaceous depositional environment interpretation of offshore Otway Basin cores and wireline logs; application to the generation of basin-scale gross depositional environment maps
Chris Cubitt A § * , Steve Abbott A , George Bernardel A , Merrie-Ellen Gunning A , Duy Nguyen A , Chris Nicholson A and Alan Stoate AA Geoscience Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
The APPEA Journal 63 S215-S220 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22090
Accepted: 20 February 2023 Published: 11 May 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).
Abstract
Gas production from the Inner Otway Basin commenced in the early 2000s but the deep-water part of this basin remains an exploration frontier. Historically, the understanding of plays in this region were largely model driven and therefore the ground-truthing of depositional environments (DE) and gross depositional environments (GDE) are critical. This aspect has been investigated for the Sherbrook Supersequence (SS) by the integration of legacy wireline and core data, with regional 2D seismic facies mapping of new and reprocessed data from Geoscience Australia’s 2020 Otway Basin seismic program. Core observations were matched to wireline logs and seismic facies with resulting well-based DE interpretations calibrated to seismic resolution Regional GDE intervals. Integration of well and seismic observations led to the compilation of a basin-wide Regional GDE map for the Sherbrook SS. This GDE map indicates the distribution of Sherbrook SS play elements such as source rock, seal and reservoir, especially across the Deep-water Otway Basin where well data is sparse.
Keywords: Australia, core, delta front, depositional environment, gross depositional environment, mouthbar, offshore Otway Basin, shelf, Sherbrook Supersequence, tidal, wireline log.
Chris Cubitt graduated from the University of Adelaide with a PhD in Diagenesis and Sedimentology. He has over 20 years of industry experience in reservoir and regional geology working basins worldwide. He joined Geoscience Australia as a Basin Analyst in 2021 and recently joined South Australia’s Department for Energy and Mining (DEM) as a Deputy Director. |
Steve Abbott joined Geoscience Australia in 2013 where he works as a Basin Analyst on prospectivity studies of Australia’s offshore basins. He earned his qualifications in sedimentary geology from Flinders (Hons, 1987) and James Cook Universities (PhD 1994). |
George Bernardel is a Basin Analyst at Geoscience Australia. He gained his BSc (Honours) in Geophysics from the University of Sydney in 1986. He joined Geoscience Australia in 1995 where he works on prospectivity studies of Australia’s offshore basins. |
Merrie-Ellen Gunning has over 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry where she has performed a diverse range of roles from strategic planning, business development and operations management, to technical roles specialising in geophysics and exploration. She has an MBA from Melbourne Business School and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geology. Merrie-Ellen joined Geoscience Australia in 2015 where she works on prospectivity studies of Australia’s offshore basins. She is currently Director of Offshore Energy Systems. |
Duy (Victor) Nguyen holds BE and ME (Petroleum Engineering) degrees from the University of New South Wales. Duy has 5 years of oil and gas industrial experience. Since 2009, Duy has worked as a Petroleum Engineer at Geoscience Australia assessing the CO2 storage potential and petroleum prospectivity of Australia’s offshore basins. |
Chris Nicholson joined Geoscience Australia in 2004 as a Basin Analyst working on prospectivity studies of Australia’s offshore basins. Chris graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Geology from the Australian National University in 2000. |
Alan Stoate received a BSc (Geology and Geophysics)/BEng (Civil & Structural) as well as a Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Adelaide in 2018. He joined Geoscience Australia in 2021 where he works on prospectivity studies of Australia’s offshore basins. |
References
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