The Petroleum Geology of South Australia Series is available for free download.
The Petroleum Geology of South Australia series was initiated in 1995, with the release of Volume 1: Otway Basin. Each of the five volumes in the series is designed to provide professionals in the petroleum industry with a comprehensive summary of South Australia's prospective sedimentary basins. At this stage they cover the Otway, Eromanga, Officer and Cooper Basins as well as the Great Australian Bight.
Each volume includes the latest information on structural and tectonic history, new seismic mapping, litho- and biostratigraphy, source rocks and maturity, reservoirs, seals, trap development, discovered reserves, field reviews, undiscovered potential, exploration history, infrastructure, economics and land access considerations.
All volumes are available through SARIG, see links below.
The petroleum geology of South Australia, Volume 1 - Second Edition 2002
The petroleum geology of South Australia, Volume 1 -1995
Since research was done for the previous volume 31 wells have been drilled onshore in South Australia and one off shore, 2200 km of 2D seismic and 214 km2 of 3D seismic have been shot and 33 scientific, peer reveiwed papers published in Australian journals.
The Otway Basin is one of a series of basins along the southern margin of the Australian continent. The divergent, passive continental margin extends 4 000 km west-east, and was formed by rifting of Australia and Antarctica, which was initiated in the Jurassic. The Otway Basin occurs on and offshore in South Australia and Victoria, and is an established commercially productive basin with several gasfields supplying local markets, and several sub-commercial oil wells.
In the last 10 years, considerable deep drilling and high-resolution seismic data have allowed a better appreciation of the structural and stratigraphic complexity of the basin. This has been reflected in the improved success ratios and there is keen competition for vacant acreage by Australian explorers.
The petroleum geology of South Australia, Volume 2 - Second Edition 2006
The petroleum geology of South Australia, Volume 2 - 1996
Eromanga Basin represents the first major compilation of the geology and hydrocarbon potential of the basin in South Australia and aims to assist explorers in understanding its geology and to fully realise its hydrocarbon potential.
The Eromanga Basin covers 1000 000 km2 of central-eastern Australia, of which 360 000 km2 lie in South Australia and are the subject of this volume. The Eromanga Basin blankets the Permian Pedirka and Arckaringa Basins, the Permo- Triassic Cooper Basin and the Triassic Simpson Basin. The geology and hydrocarbon potential of these basins is also detailed in Volume 2. Since 1954, over 1000 petroleum wells have been drilled in the basin and ~80 000 line kilometres of seismic have been recorded.
The perceived problem with Eromanga Basin prospectivity is lack of high quality source rocks. However new geochemical data, published for the first time in Volume 2, indicates that organic-rich shales in the Eromanga Basin are oil-prone and are at peak maturity for oil generation in the Poolowanna Trough. This has significantly upgraded the hydrocarbon potential of this vast region.
The petroleum geology of South Australia, Volume 3 - First Edition 1997
Summary of the of the petroleum geology of the South Australian portion of the Officer Basin forms the third volume of the Petroleum geology of South Australia series.
The petroleum geology of South Australia, Volume 4 - First Edition 1998
This summary of the petroleum geology of the South Australian portion of the Cooper Basin forms the fourth volume of The Petroleum geology of South Australia series and follows on from Volume 1: Otway Basin published in 1995, Volume 2: Eromanga Basin (1996) and Volume 3: Officer Basin (1997).
Chapters without hyperlinks were not completed prior to the transfer of responsibilities for offshore waters to NOPTA / Geoscience Australia - please see Important Note below for more information.
The Petroleum of geology of South Australia - Volume 5
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: History of petroleum exploration
Chapter 3: Natural environment and environmental management
Chapter 4: Structural and tectonic setting
Chapter 6: Stratigraphy and environments of deposition
Chapter 7: Source rock geochemistry and strandings
Chapter 8: Thermal maturation history
Chapter 9: Stress analysis, fault reactivation and seal integrity
Chapter 10: Direct hydrocarbon indicators
Chapter 11: Reservoirs and seals
Chapter 12: Play types
Chapter 13: Integration: prospectivity
Important Note on the Contents of Vol. 5 (Bight Basin)
Prior to 2012, each State and Territory was responsible for petroleum licensing and regulation in their respective offshore waters. However, following the amendment of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 to implement recommendations from the Productivity Commission, responsibility for the licensing and regulation of petroleum-related activities occurring greater than 3 nautical miles from shore (or, technically, from the territorial sea baseline) passed from the various States and Territories to the Commonwealth Government. The National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) was created to have responsibility for the day-to-day administration of petroleum & greenhouse gas titles in Commonwealth waters, with Geoscience Australia managing the well and seismic database (NOPIMS) for these areas on their behalf.
The project to document the geology of the Bight Basin as Volume 5 of the Petroleum Geology of South Australia series started prior to 2006. The transfer of licensing and regulatory responsibilities to the Commonwealth Government under the OPGGSA occurred partway through this geoscience work, and compilation of Volume 5 of the Petroleum Geology of South Australia series (Bight Basin) was stopped at that point. Details of the work that had been completed before then are given on this page but Geoscience Australia is now the primary agency for studies covering Commonwealth waters, so please refer to the Geoscience Australia website for up-to-date information and reports on the Bight Basin.
