Publication Name: The Cooper & Eromanga Basins Australia
Authors: R.J.S. Hollingsworth
Date Published: June 1989
Number of Pages: 25
Reference Type: Book Section
Abstract:
The Cooper and Eromanga Basins comprise the largest and most prolific onshore hydrocarbon province in Australia. Systematic exploration commenced in 1958 and is continuing strongly even in the present climate. The history of exploration in the Basins is essentially the history of the Delhi-SANTOS joint venture and may be divided into five periods.The first period runs from 1954 to the drilling of the first deep well, Innamincka-1, which demonstrated the existence of the hitherto unknown Cooper Basin PermoTriassic sequence.
The period following the initial discovery involved a development phase which led to the Adelaide gas market
contract. The third period began with the great leap in farmout and exploration activity in 1969 and continued
through the Sydney gas market study to the doldrums of the mid-1970s. The discovery of oil at Strzelecki in 1978
ushered in the fourth, or Eromanga Basin phase culminating in the Jackson oil discovery in 1981. The final period is currently in progress, involving the major gas and oil programs of the 1980s.