Oil exploration opportunities and risks on the North West Shelf of Australia Available to Purchase

The North West Shelf of Australia is a vast offshore area of over 500,000 sq. km (200,000 sq. mi.), where fewer than 300 exploration wells have been drilled since offshore activity began in 1964. This offshore region comprises a series of variably superimposed Paleozoic-Mesozoic extensional basins, overlain by a thick, prograding, Tertiary carbonate shelf. Thermal subsidence during the Tertiary has been disrupted in the northern basins by the Miocene–Recent collision of the Australian plate with the Indonesian island arc complex. The potential for significant oil accumulations has only been realized in the past few years, with major commercial successes in Mesozoic sandstone reservoirs of the North Carnarvon and Bonaparte basins. More than half of the shelf is currently open acreage; offshore permit areas are now being posted every six months. Unlike other international regions, well and seismic data are available through an open file system at minimal cost. Using this well and selected seismic data, burial history curves have been constructed for several offshore areas on the North West Shelf. These are used to assess the opportunities and risks for source beds, maturation, reservoir units and migration, relative to trap formation.