PETROLEUM SYSTEMS OF THE PETREL SUB-BASIN-AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO BASIN ANALYSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

A petroleum system evaluation of the Petrel Sub-basin in the Bonaparte Gulf, northwest Australia, suggests that the wells drilled in the area have not fully evaluated the petroleum potential. Some of the lowest risk plays in the basin have not been tested adequately or have not been assessed in probable economic fairways.

Several important discoveries have highlighted the existence of at least three petroleum systems in the Petrel Sub-basin; Larapintine, Transitional and Gondwanan. Best known are the Gondwanan gas discoveries at Petrel, Tern and most recently Fishburn, where hydrocarbons are reservoired in Late Permian sandstones and are probably sourced from Permian deltaic sequences. Kurt her inshore, oil has been recovered from Carboniferous and Early Permian reservoirs at Turtle and Barnett. The source of the oil is considered to be Carboniferous anoxic marine shales of a distinct petroleum system transitional between the Gondwanan and Larapintine systems (Milligans Formation source rock and Late Carboniferous to Permian reservoirs). Onshore, there is a gas discovery at Gariinala-1 and significant oil shows in Ningbing-1, in Late Devonian Larapintine system rocks. Geochemical analysis of the oil shows it to be sourced from a carbonate marine source rock, different from the clastic derived oils obtained from Turtle and Barnett.

Recent discoveries in the Timor Sea have provoked a re-assessment of the very similar, largely untested, Mesozoic, Westralian petroleum system in the outer part of the Petrel Sub-basin. The prospective Mesozoic play fairway occurs in the northern part of the Petrel Sub-basin, extending into Area B of the Zone of Cooperation.