The Officer Basin is vast and under-explored by any measure. It has been subjected to minimal petroleum exploration including a few seismic lines and approximately one well per each 10,000 km2 of the Basin. Most of the petroleum exploration is concentrated into two areas, one centrally located in the Officer Basin near Warburton, and the other in South Australia, located within the eastern part of the Officer Basin. There has been limited conventional on-structure exploration within the Western Australian portion of the Officer Basin. Few valid tests for petroleum plays are noted. However, the available information does indicate the presence of petroleum systems within the petroleum window.
Key technical elements of the Neoproterozoic Era Officer Basin petroleum prospectivity include the following:
The Officer Basin also exhibits the key elements for the generation and trapping of natural hydrogen and helium:
Office Basin Comparison
Commercial accumulations of petroleum in rocks the same age as the Officer Basin occur in Oman, Russia, Siberia, India, China and Brazil. Well-founded technical analogies can be drawn with the prolific petroleum-bearing basins of the same age located in Siberia, China and Oman.
Analogues for natural hydrogen and helium can be drawn with the Amadeus Basin, located in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Officer Basin is similar in age and geology to the Amadeus Basin and both basins have the presence of salt to act as a trap for the light molecule hydrogen and helium gases. Well analogues can be made with the Mt Kitty 1 (11% hydrogen, 9% helium) and Magee 1 (6.23% helium) wells which were drilled to depths of 2,295m and 2,696m respectively.
© Petrex Australia | Design by JAZ