LIVE WEBINAR – Dynamic Basins Incorporating Structural and Sedimentological Data: Examples from the North West Shelf of Australia

Kindly supported by Rock Flow dynamics

This live webinar will take place at:

11am              – Perth
12.30pm       – Darwin, Adelaide
1pm                – Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney

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Dynamic Basins Incorporating Structural and Sedimentological Data: Examples from the North West Shelf of Australia

Presented by Stuart Clark

Abstract

Petroleum system modelling captures the dynamic process of hydrocarbon migration from source rock into potential reservoirs for oil and gas exploration based on geological models representing the subsurface. In frontier basins, the scarcity of data means that there are large uncertainties in the geological model as well as the timing and channels of migration. The overall variety of potential models and parameters may mean that only the geological best fit model may be considered, while other potentially lucrative models might be ignored or under-developed. We are working to develop an approach to basin analysis and petroleum systems modelling that allows for scenario testing and systematic exploration of parameters and the outcome on economic decisions.

Here we present the preliminary results of such an integrated dynamic perspective for Australia’s North West Shelf. We have used available well data to develop a large-scale dynamic model of the subsidence history of the Northern Carnarvon Basin. Our results suggest that dynamic topography and the NE-SW tilting of the Australian continent caused an uplift and sediment starvation in the Southwestern Exmouth and Barrow sub-basins while increasing accommodation space and sediment supply to the North-eastern Dampier and Beagle sub-basin.

The benefits of such an integrated perspective are what motivates the development of our new integration focused workflow – Kinematica. This workflow will link the work above directly to the modelling of petroleum migration to allow the basin and petroleum system to evolve simultaneously. Focusing on the first order processes will allow us to rapidly test alternative basin reconstruction and migration scenarios in frontier basins where data is usually poor and the uncertainties around the structures and petrophysical properties of the basins are high. The calculation of likelihoods between different geological scenarios of basin evolution based on the available data will be an integral aspect of Kinematica.