Seismic stratigraphy of the northern Canning Basin

Abstract

The Canning Basin is unique among Australian sedimentary basins in that stratigraphic trapping of hydrocarbons assumes as great, if not greater, an importance as structural trapping. The renowned outcrops of the Devonian reef complexes attracted petroleum explorers to the Canning Basin in the early 1940s (Playford, 1980, 1984). By the early 1970s, West Australian Petroleum Pty (Wapet) had proven that most of the large structures in the basin were dry. However, one of their more significant oil shows was in a Devonian reef play intersected by Meda 1, drilled in 1958. Large structural discoveries still elude the explorers.