Publication Name: The Sedimentary Basins of WA
Authors: Philip A. Symonds, Brian Murphy, Doug Ramsay, Keith Lockwood and Irina Borissova
Publication Volume: 2
Date Published: December 1998
Number of Pages: 28
Reference Type: Book Section
Abstract:
The outer limits of the seabed and subsoil resource regime off Western Australia - the Continental Shelf - are based on boundaries with the international community to the west and south, and boundaries negotiated with Indonesia in the north. The rules for defining the outer limits with respect to the international community are contained in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Where the continental margin extends beyond the 200 n mile Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (AEEZ) the outer limit is based on the provisions of Article 76 of UNCLOS, which requires information on the morphology, sediment thickness distributionand bathymetry of the margin and adjacent sea floor. During the last four years AGSO has been conducting surveys across the margins of Australia and its island territories for this purpose, and over 30 000 km of seismic data have been collected, about 10 000 km off Western Australia.The Continental Shelf off Western Australian extends beyond the AEEZ in four areas: the Argo Abyssal Plain, the Joey Rise/Exmouth Plateau/Wallaby Plateau, the Naturaliste Plateau, and the central Great Australian Bight. These cover an area of about 0.7 million kmZ, and, together with the 2 million km2 AEEZ, will result in a full marine resource jurisdictional zone of about 2. 7 million km2, just bigger than the size of the Western Australian landmass, and by far the biggest of any Australian State. Only the inner part of this jurisdiction, largely the geomorphic shelf, is currently being explored for petroleum. However, significant opportunities for frontier
petroleum exploration exist in extensions of known basins and play-types beyond the geomorphic shelf,
and possibly in unconventional play-types on plateaus that extend beyond the AEEZ, such as the Exmouth, Wallaby and Naturaliste plateaus.