Past Events from Thursday, 21 July, 2022 › The Shoe

The field of natural hydrogen exploration is currently experiencing a surge in global interest, with a notable focus on Australia, where recent legislative changes have created opportunities for exploration initiatives. But how can we effectively pursue this non-petroleum gas resource?

Australia boasts the largest resource of fluid inclusion data in the world, with more than 800 wells,
leading the way in application by the oil and gas industry. These datasets can add tremendous value to the exploration and development of oil and gas fields and the assessment for potential geological storage of CO2.

In 2015 ExxonMobil discovered oil in the Stabroek Block in the deep water of Guyana, South America.  Subsequent discoveries have resulted in announced reserves of 10+ billion barrels.  First oil commenced in December 2019 with a second development coming online February 1922.  Current production capacity is 340,000 barrels per day with additional developments in progress.

The Rafael 1 exploration well was drilled in the onshore Canning Basin by Buru Energy in late 2021 and made an exciting gas-condensate discovery in Devonian dolomites. The well tested a significant four-way structural closure mapped on a sparse regional 2D seismic grid, although the stratigraphic succession at the well location was difficult to predict due to the limited and distant well control. The Rafael 1 discovery has challenged a number of paradigms about the Canning Basin and supports the contention that significant volumes of gas in conventional reservoirs are yet to be discovered despite sporadic exploration over the past 100 years. The well also confirms that opportunity hides where high geological complexity and sparse datasets intersect.

Presented by John Shepherd, Centre for Energy Geoscience, University of Western Australia. Understanding the stratigraphic architecture of shelf-margin clinoforms is key to determining both how sediments are transported to deep-water settings and how the interplay of tectonics (subsidence/uplift) and eustasy, with variation in sediment supply, impacts deep-water sand delivery. Within this study clinothems are used to establish quantitative and statistical relationships between the shelf-margin architecture, paleoshoreline processes, and deep-water system types (i.e., quantitative 3D seismic stratigraphy). The Hammerhead shelf-margin prograded during the Late Cretaceous within the Great Australian Bight Basin, along the southern margin of Australia, following break-up with Antarctica. This understudied interval offers a unique opportunity to investigate the controls on the evolution of a shelf margin during the early stages of the post-rift phase.

Presented by Feng Xu Jian and Stephen Doyle. The Barrow Sub-Basin and Exmouth Plateau, of Australia's North West Shelf, contain Australia's largest gas reserves, underpinning the three major LNG facilities, including Gorgon, Wheatstone, and Pluto. In addition, there remains significant near-field exploration potential. While there is full 3D seismic coverage in the basin, the existing 3D surveys are of different vintages covering only parts of the basin with diverse acquisition and processing parameters. Multi-Client Resources has produced an extensive 3D seismic reprocessing project (BEX-MC3D) incorporating 23 legacy 3D surveys to provide a seamless 25,570 km 2 3D dataset.