Exploration potential of Papua New Guinea – latest multiclient 3D provides new insight into the underexplored Papuan Basin over the Papuan and Eastern Plateaus
Tad Choi A * , Jens Beenfeldt B and Marcin Przywara BA
B
Tad Choi is currently the Sales and New Ventures Manager for Asia-Pacific, PGS based in Perth. He has over 22 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, working primarily in the Asia-Pacific region. He started his career in 2002 at Woodside Energy, where he spent 10 years in Exploration then he joined PGS as a Principal Geoscientist in 2012. He holds a master’s and a PhD degree in geology from Niigata University, Japan. He is a member of PESA, EAGE, SEAPEX and AAPG. |
Jens Beenfeldt is currently a Senior Geoscientist in the Sales and Services Eurasia PGS based in Oslo. He has over 17 years of experience in the oil and gas service industry, working primarily in Europe. He started his career in 2007 at ElectroMagnetic GeoServices (EMGS), where he spent 6 years before joining PGS in 2012 as a project geoscientist. He holds a master’s degree in geology from Copenhagen University, Denmark. |
Marcin Przywara is a Senior QI Geoscientist in the Sales and Services Eurasia PGS with 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry from both service (Geofizyka Torun, Halliburton/Landmark and PGS), and oil and gas companies (Hansa Hydrocarbons). Lead PGS Reservoir Characterisation outpost in Asia-Pacific (KL, Malaysia). Holds a master’s degree in Geophysics from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Main technical areas of expertise are Quantitative Interpretation, AVO, Rock Physics and Seismic Inversions. |
Abstract
The Gulf of Papua, part of the regional Papuan Basin, is characterised by extensional to passive margin tectonics from the Triassic to Late Oligocene and collisional tectonics from the Late Oligocene until the present day. The basin has experienced rapid clastic deposition in the late Neogene which covers an underlying extensive Miocene carbonate shelf with local bioherms and associated carbonate facies. Underlying the carbonates, an array of deformed and complex rift basins are present, with potential petroleum plays in undifferentiated Mesozoic sediments which onlap basement highs. The Miocene carbonates are the primary exploration targets, along with Pliocene clastic turbidite sediments in the Fly River Delta, Western Gulf of Papua. It is postulated that these were charged by Mesozoic marine–deltaic/terrestrial source rocks that were deposited during the opening of the Coral Sea. The offshore Papuan Basin is underexplored and the Gulf of Papua play types seen in the onshore Aure Fold Belt and offshore Fly River Platform could potentially extend offshore into the Coral Sea area. New broadband Pre‐Stack Depth Migration seismic data covering a part of the Eastern and Papuan Plateaus reveals new insights into the structural development of the region, rift basin geometries, configuration, and association of rift clastics and post-rift carbonates. Internal carbonate features can be observed on the new seismic data set, and new plays in the yet undifferentiated rift sediments of Mesozoic age are proposed in this study.
Keywords: AVO, Coral Sea, frontier exploration, Gulf of Papua, Mesozoic, Miocene carbonate, Papuan Plateau, PNG.
Tad Choi is currently the Sales and New Ventures Manager for Asia-Pacific, PGS based in Perth. He has over 22 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, working primarily in the Asia-Pacific region. He started his career in 2002 at Woodside Energy, where he spent 10 years in Exploration then he joined PGS as a Principal Geoscientist in 2012. He holds a master’s and a PhD degree in geology from Niigata University, Japan. He is a member of PESA, EAGE, SEAPEX and AAPG. |
Jens Beenfeldt is currently a Senior Geoscientist in the Sales and Services Eurasia PGS based in Oslo. He has over 17 years of experience in the oil and gas service industry, working primarily in Europe. He started his career in 2007 at ElectroMagnetic GeoServices (EMGS), where he spent 6 years before joining PGS in 2012 as a project geoscientist. He holds a master’s degree in geology from Copenhagen University, Denmark. |
Marcin Przywara is a Senior QI Geoscientist in the Sales and Services Eurasia PGS with 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry from both service (Geofizyka Torun, Halliburton/Landmark and PGS), and oil and gas companies (Hansa Hydrocarbons). Lead PGS Reservoir Characterisation outpost in Asia-Pacific (KL, Malaysia). Holds a master’s degree in Geophysics from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Main technical areas of expertise are Quantitative Interpretation, AVO, Rock Physics and Seismic Inversions. |
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