Publication Name: Eastern Australian Basins Symposium V (EABS 2015)
Authors: K.F. Kroeger, R.H. Funnell, M. Arnot, S. Bull, M. Hill, T.R. Sahoo, H. Zhu
Date Published: September 2015
Number of Pages: 14
Abstract:
The discovery of the giant Maui gas-condensate field in 1969 initiated a long history of petroleum exploration in offshore Taranaki Basin in northwestern New Zealand. This important discovery was followed by many smaller finds but also by a very large number of dry wells through to the present day. Factors controlling prospectivity are still insufficiently understood despite 400 wells being drilled in the basin. Recent remapping of the southern Taranaki Basin as part of the GNS Science 4D Taranaki project has clarified rapid changes in basin evolution and illustrated the structural complexity of the basin. Heterogeneities in the crust inherited from the Mesozoic Gondwana margin subduction system directly impact on heat flow. The architecture of the crust was also affected by Late Cretaceous rifting related to the opening of the Tasman Sea as well as the initiation of the present-day convergent plate margin. These processes influenced the evolution of heat flow through time whilst increasing the thermal heterogeneity in the basin.