Late Permian–Early Triassic depositional history in the southern Bonaparte Basin: new biostratigraphic insights into reservoir heterogeneity
R. Owens A B , A. Kelman A , K. Khider A , T. Bernecker A and B. Bradshaw AA Geoscience Australia, Canberra, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: ryan.owens@ga.gov.au
The APPEA Journal 61(2) 699-706 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20111
Accepted: 10 March 2021 Published: 2 July 2021
Abstract
The upper Permian to Lower Triassic sedimentary succession in the southern Bonaparte Basin represents a marginal marine depositional system that hosts several gas accumulations. Of these, the Blacktip gas field has been in production since 2009, while additional gas resources are under consideration for development. The sedimentary succession extends across the Permian–Triassic stratigraphic boundary, and shows a change in lithofacies from the carbonate dominated Dombey Formation to the siliciclastic dominated Tern and Penguin formations. The timing, duration, distribution and depositional environments of these formations in the Petrel Sub-basin and Londonderry High is the focus of this study. The sedimentary succession extending from the Dombey to the Penguin formations is interpreted to represent marginal marine facies which accumulated during a long-lasting marine transgression that extended over previous coastal and alluvial plain sediments of the Cape Hay Formation. The overlying Mairmull Formation represents the transition to fully marine deposition in the Early Triassic. Regional scale well correlations and an assessment of biostratigraphic data indicate that marginal marine depositional systems were initiated outboard before the end-Permian extinction event, and migrated inboard at about the Permian–Triassic stratigraphic boundary. Marginal marine deposition across the southern Bonaparte Basin continued through the faunal and floral recovery phase as Triassic species became established. The depositional history of the basin is translated to a chronostratigraphic framework which has implications for predicting the character and distribution of petroleum system elements in the Petrel Sub-basin and Londonderry High.
Keywords: Bonaparte Basin, Petrel Sub-basin, Permian-Triassic boundary, North West Shelf, reservoir, stratigraphy, biostratigraphy.
Ryan Owens is a Geoscientist in Geoscience Australia’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Advice, Investment Attraction and Analysis Branch. He graduated from the Australian National University in 2007 with a BSc in Geology (Hons). Subsequently he worked in mineral exploration before undertaking a PhD in paleoceanography at the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU. Since joining Geoscience Australia through the graduate program in 2014, Ryan has contributed to a number of projects including the northern Houtman sub-basin prospectivity study, the Geological and Bioregional Assessments of the Beetaloo and Cooper basins and the annual acreage release. Member: PESA, GSA. |
Andrew Kelman is a biostratigrapher in Geoscience Australia’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Advice, Investment Attraction and Analysis Branch. He completed a BSc at ANU in 1993, and an honours degree in paleontology and ecostratigraphy at Macquarie University, NSW, in 2005. He joined Geoscience Australia as a Palaeontology Technician in 1994, moving to his present position with the Timescales project in 2006. Andrew’s work is now focused compiling biostratigraphic charts covering the Australian offshore and onshore basins and biostratigraphic contributions to the acreage release process. |
Dr Kamal Khider is a Senior Geoscientist in Geoscience Australia’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Basin Systems Branch. He has a BSc, MSc and PhD (Stratigraphy and Sedimentology) and a PhD in Applied Geochemistry. Kamal has longstanding academic and consultative experience in geosciences, working in many academic and industrial geological organisations in Australia, the Middle East and North Africa. He worked on the regional geological appraisal of the Eocene–Oligocene–Miocene boundaries IGCP174, regional geochemical assessment of the Cobar-Girilambone region in NSW and the Queensland Carbon Dioxide Geological Storage Atlas. Since 2007, he has worked on several of Geoscience Australia’s petroleum and carbon capture and storage projects. Kamal is a member of AAPG, GSA and SEPM. |
Dr Thomas (Tom) Bernecker is a sedimentologist/petroleum geologist who holds an MSc from the University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany and a PhD from Melbourne’s La Trobe University. His research work included the development of depositional models for coal and hydrocarbon-bearing basins in NW Europe as well as facies and diagenetic studies of tectonically overprinted Devonian carbonate sequences in Australia. After a lectureship at the University of Melbourne, Tom joined the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Energy where his work was focused on the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Gippsland and Otway basins. Tom joined Geoscience Australia as the team leader for the onshore hydrocarbon project in 2007 and from 2009 onwards has managed the offshore acreage release program, including the promotion of investment opportunities in Australia’s oil and gas sector. Tom is currently the Director of the Energy Resources Advice and Promotion section in GA’s Minerals, Energy and Groundwater division. He is a member of PESA, SEPM and SEAPEX. |
Dr Barry Bradshaw is a Geoscientist with 29 years’ experience undertaking geological and geophysical studies and play-based prospectivity studies for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources, geological storage projects and sediment-hosted mineral deposits. Barry is currently the Energy Resources Advice activity leader at Geoscience Australia, and has previously worked as a Principal Geologist at CGSS consultants, Senior Research Scientist at AGSO/Geoscience Australia and Research Scientist at Texas A&M University (USA). Barry graduated from the University of Sydney in 1988, and completed a PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of Waikato (New Zealand) in 1991. |
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