Publication Name: The Sedimentary Basins of WA
Authors: John Scott
Publication Volume: 2
Date Published: December 1998
Number of Pages: 25
Reference Type: Book Section
Abstract:
Continuous oil pools form in source rocks where kerogen has been converted to oil but has not been completely expelled. Self-sourcing reservoirs occur where a continuous oil pool is sufficiently fractured to provide permeability and allow production of oil. The fractured source rock also acts as the reservoir, hence the term self-sourcing reservoir.Self-sourcing reservoirs offer the opportunity for the discovery of large accumulations in onshore Australia, but are at present attracting little attention. Commercial production has been established in North America and Europe. The Bakken Shale (Devonian-Carboniferous) of the Williston Basin is the best documented self-sourcing reservoir, where production was first established in the 1950s. Horizontal drilling led to a surge in development of the Bakken in the late 1980s. The Cane Creek Shale (Carboniferous) of the Paradox Basin is a self-sourcing
reservoir within a carbonate-evaporite system. The Bazhenov Formation (Jurassic) of the West Siberian Basin is currently being developed in the Salymkoye Field.
Possibilities for development of continuous oil pools and self-sourcing reservoirs within Middle Proterozoic, Ordovician and Triassic source rock sequences occur in several basins in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.