A reassessment of the petroleum systems in the offshore northern Perth Basin

Brief description

The discovery of commercial oil in the Cliff Head-1 well in 2001 set an important milestone in the exploration history of the offshore northern Perth Basin. The region had been largely underexplored before then, partly due to the perception that the Hovea Member, a 10 to 40 m-thick unit straddling the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) and recognized as the main source of onshore petroleum accumulations, was not developed offshore (Crostella, 2001). The typing of the Cliff Head oil to the Hovea Member provided evidence that the key onshore petroleum system extends offshore and revitalized exploration in the area with 13 new field wildcat wells drilled since 2002. Three discoveries have been made subsequently further offshore in the Abrolhos Sub-basin with gas retrieved in Frankland-1 and Perseverance-1 and oil and gas in Dunsborough-1.

A review of source rock and oil geochemical data was undertaken by Geoscience Australia in the offshore northern Perth Basin as part of a major integrated study aimed at reassessing the basin's prospectivity. This work supports the release of offshore exploration areas W13-19 and W13-20, two major blocks straddling the Houtman and Abrolhos Sub-basins with small portions extending into the Zeewyck and Gascoyne Sub-basins (Fig. 1). Well control is provided by 5 wells from the Wittecarra Terrace in the northern Abrolhos Sub-basin and Houtman-1 in the Houtman Sub-basin.

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