Extending the Exmouth Plateau post-Callovian fairway: WA-390-P phase I exploration*
John Smallwood A , Jon Banfield B , Phil Cox C , Dean Griffin D , Yohan Kusumanegara E , Paul Owen F , Edward Prescott G , Jonathan Smith H and Stefano Santoni IA Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: john.smallwood@hess.com
B Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: jon.banfield@hess.com
C Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: philip.cox@hess.com
D Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: dean.griffin@hess.com
E Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: yohan.kusumanegara@hess.com
F Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: paul.owen@hess.com
G Hess Exploration Australia Level 18, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. Email: edward.prescott@hess.com
H Hess Exploration Australia Level 9, 1-11 John Adam St, London, WA2N 6AG, UK. Email: jonathan.g.smith@hess.com
I Bayfield Energy Ltd Unit 6, Eastgate Court, High Street, Guildford, GU1 3DE, UK.
The APPEA Journal 50(2) 700-700 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ09064
Published: 2010
Abstract
Discovery of the Jansz-Io field in 2000 established the presence of the Jurassic W. Spectabilis fairway in the deep-water Exmouth Plateau, North Carnarvon Basin. In conjunction with the regionally prolific Triassic Mungaroo gas play, this assisted in exciting record bid levels during the 2006 Gazettal of offsetting acreage, with the award of WA-390-P to Hess for a work commitment of 3,135 km2 3D seismic data and 16 exploration wells. In the first phase of exploration the 3D acquisition was completed and four wells positioned using 2D data were drilled in 2007.
Three of these, Glencoe-1, Briseis-1 and Nimblefoot-1, were discoveries in the post-Callovian interval, with Briseis-1 encountering additional gas play in the Triassic Mungaroo Formation. The W. Spectabilis sandstones encountered in Glencoe-1 were analogous to those encountered in the Jansz-1 discovery well, 75 km to the northeast.
These are interpreted to have been deposited in a shallow marine environment with accommodation space controlled primarily by the relict topography of the Triassic fault blocks. In contrast, Nimblefoot-1 and Briseis-1 both encountered gas play in deep-water sandstones of Berriasian age.
These are interpreted to be delta-front turbidites sourced from the Barrow delta to the south, analogous to the Scarborough gas field, but in fault-bounded traps in which fragments of the hanging wall systems have been preserved in the degraded footwalls of major faults. Both play types are characterised by classic seismic amplitude and AVO anomalies.
Keywords: North Carnarvon Basin exploration, W. spectabilis, Lower Barrow Group, Mungaroo
John Smallwood has worked at Hess for 13 years, of which the last 3 have been as the Australia Exploration Manager. His previous experience includes exploration, appraisal and development in: the West of Shetlands and North Sea, UK; Gabon; Algeria; Libya; Egypt; Thailand; Malaysia; and, Indonesia. He has a BA in geological sciences, a PhD in marine geophysics from Cambridge University and is a chartered geologist. He has published 32 research papers on subjects including: volcanic continental margins; seismic attributes; sediment budgets; depth conversion; potential fields and historical geophysics. |
Jon Banfield has worked as a geologist in the oil and gas industry since 1986. He is currently responsible for geological operations on a sequence of 16 Hess-operated exploration wells in the WA-390-P permit and was involved in the acquisition of the Glencoe 3D seismic survey. He has participated in drilling more than 100 offshore wells for operators that include: Woodside; Chevron; Statoil; and Ranger Oil. Jon has a BSc (Hons) in geology from the University of Southampton in the UK. |
Phil Cox has worked at Hess as a geologist for 10 years. Phil’s experience covers both exploration and development and he has worked in many different hydrocarbon provinces around the world, including: the North Sea; Egypt; and the Gulf of Mexico. He has been part of the Australian Exploration Team since 2007. He has a BSc and MSc from Royal Holloway Collage, University of London. |
Dean Griffin is presently based in Perth and acts as the Senior Geological Advisor for Hess Exploration Australia. He has 18 years’ industry experience and has spent the last 12 years working in exploration for Hess in a number of the key petroleum producing regions around the world. He has an MSc in petroleum geology from Imperial College, London. |
Yohan Kusumanegara is a geological advisor at Hess Exploration Australia. He has over 15 years’ experience in petroleum exploration and production. Prior to joining Hess, in January 2007, he was a team leader of New Ventures-Total E&P Indonesia, and worked for Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and Total S.A. (Paris, France) with various assignments in: Indonesia; the North West Shelf; Australia; the South China Sea; and Africa. He has an MSc in petroleum geology from the Colorado School of Mines, USA, and was a member of the Genetic Stratigraphy Research Group. |
Paul Owen is the exploration team lead for the 100% Hess-operated WA-390-P block in the Carnarvon Basin. Paul has worked as a geologist in the oil and gas industry since 1998. This included positions with: Santos; ExxonMobil; and Woodside. Paul has been involved in new ventures, exploration, development and production with experience in offshore basins of: Australia; deepwater Gulf of Mexico; deepwater West Africa; southeast Asia; and Latin America. He has a BSc (Hons) in applied geology from Curtin University. |
Edward Prescott is a senior geophysicist with Hess who has worked in the industry since 2005. Edward has worked on exploration and development projects in the UK, Egypt, Malaysia and Australia. Presently he works in Perth for Hess Exploration Australia on their WA-390-P licence. Edward has a BSc (Hons) in geophysics from Durham University, UK and an MSc in petroleum geoscience from the University of Aberdeen, UK. |
Jonathan Smith is Senior Geophysical Advisor with 30 years’ experience in the oil industry. He has held positions with: Geoservices; Western Geophysical; Phillips; Conoco; Hamilton Brothers; BHP Billiton; and most recently Hess, working on numerous exploration and appraisal projects with a strong focus on new ventures exploration. Jonathon’s early experience was garnered mud-logging in France, the Middle East and UK North Sea, and data processing with Western. His subsequent oil company experience has involved work in: Sub-Saharan Africa; the Gulf of Mexico; North Africa; Europe; India; and Australia. He is now based in London with Hess working on West African exploration projects. |
Lucky explorers work in the right basin at the right time. Stefano worked in North Africa in the 1980s (Ashrafi (Egypt) and Intisar E (Libya)), then spent one-and-a-half decades in South America (El Trapial, in Argentina). Back to Europe in 2004, he led the Hess Australia team responsible for capturing WA-390-P and WA-404-P and for the location of the exploration wells of the initial drilling campaign in WA-390-P. Stefano joined Burren Energy in 2007 and—after its purchase by ENI—formed Bayfield Energy Ltd in 2008 with former directors and managers of Burren, where he keep waiting to stumble in the next right basin at the right time! While working on this paper, Stefano Santoni was employed at Hess Exploration Australia. He is now employed at Bayfield Energy Ltd. |
References
Jenkins, C.C., Maughan, D.M., Acton, J.H., Duckett, A., Korn, B.E., and Teakle, R.P. (2003). The Jansz gas field, Carnarvon Basin, Australia. APPEA Journal 2003, 303–23.Rutherford, S.R., and Williams, R.H. (1989). Amplitude-versus-offset variation in gas sands. Geophysics 54, 680–88.
