Publication Name: Eastern Australian Basins Symposium III (EABS 2008)
Authors: J.M Totterdell, H.I.M. Struckmeyer, C.J. Boreham, C.H. Mitchell, E. Monteil and B.E.Bradshaw
Date Published: September 2008
Number of Pages: 22
Abstract:
A recent Geoscience Australia geological sampling survey in the Great Australian Bight has provided new evidence for the presence of potential oil-prone source rocks in the Bight Basin. Exploratory drilling in the Bight Basin has historically concentrated on the inboard margins of the basin. Apart from Woodside’s Gnarlyknots-1A well, which was drilled in the Ceduna Sub-basin in 2003, only the more proximal parts of the Cretaceous depositional systems of the basin have ever been sampled by drilling. Previous Geoscience Australia work in the Bight Basin predicted the presence of potential source rock intervals at different stratigraphic levels, including mid-Cretaceous marine or marine-influenced sediments whose source rock character was predicted to improve farther basinward. The sampling survey targeted an area at the seaward edge of the Eyre Terrace where canyon formation, slumping and faulting have exposed an interpreted Albian–Santonian stratigraphic section. Samples recovered from this area include a suite of carbonaceous marine siltstones and mudstones.