cooper basin regional petroleum prospectivity studies

Cooper Basin Regional Petroleum Prospectivity Studies

Lisa Hall 1

Chris Boreham1, Anthony Budd1, Lidena Carr1, Dianne Edwards1, Paul Henson1, Tony Hill 2, John Morton2, Tehani

Palu1, Martin Smith1, Alison Troup 3, Liuqi Wang1

1 Geoscience Australia, ACT

2 Department of State Development, SA

3 Geological Survey Queensland, QLD

Regional Prospectivity Studies - Roundtable for Oil and Gas Projects in SA, Adelaide, Sept 2015

Geoscience Australia’s Petroleum Work Program

• Petroleum program strategic priorities – building Australia’s

resource wealth:

• Predict Australia's energy resource potential and identify new energy

provinces through pre-competitive data and analysis.

• Provide independent information and advice to Government and other

stakeholders and promote Australia's energy resource potential.

• Geoscience Australia’s projects in South Australia:

• Cooper Basin regional prospectivity assessment (Energy Systems

Branch)

• Resource assessments (Resources Advice and Promotions Branch)

• Collaboration with Bioregional Assessment Program (Groundwater

Branch)

• Relevance to Roadmap Themes and Recommendations:

• Attract investment by improving our knowledge of the subsurface

Cooper Basin prospectivity assessment

Improve understanding of basin

scale hydrocarbon prospectivity

Inputs for regional play mapping

and resource assessment

studies

• Prospectivity study workflow:

• 3D basin architecture and

structural evolution

• Geochemistry: source rock

thickness, amount, quality

• Integrated basin modelling:

source rock maturity,

hydrocarbon generation


Shale

gas

Deep

dry CG BCG Source Seal Res.

Conventional Continuous Gas Plays

Gid

gealp

a G

p

Roseneath

Murteree

Toolachee

Patch.

Epsilon

Daralingie

Regional Basin Architecture

• Cooper Basin regional 3D model

• Updated structure surfaces and isopachs:

• Better integration of datasets across the state border

• Incorporation of new open file well picks and seismic

interpretation

• Stratigraphic ages:

• Updated to GTS 2012, inclusion of revised spore pollen

zone ages (e.g. Nicoll et al., 2015)


A

B

Distance(km)

Dep

th (

m)

A B

Regional Basin Architecture: Structure Surfaces


Lithofacies

• Toolachee, Daralingie, Epsilon

and Patchawarra Formations -

coal, silt, shale and sand net

thickness

• South Australia:

• Sun and Camac (2004)

electrofacies mapping,

• updated coal thicknesses

Weena Trough and

surrounds

• QLD: new electrofacies maps

consistent SA methodology


Toolachee Fm Daralingie Fm

Epsilon Fm Patchawarra Fm

coal coaly shale coal coaly shale

coal coaly shale coal coaly shale

> 100m

Mapping the Cooper Basin’s Source Rocks

• Source rock thickness, richness, quality,

maturity by formation and lithology

• Update and QC GA’s ORGCHEM database

• Map source richness – Total Organic Carbon

(TOC)

• Improve source rock characterisation

• Additional geochemical sampling to improve

understanding of Patchawarra coals


Source Rock Richness (shales/ coaly shales)

Present Day %TOC

Good/ excellent source rock: TOC > 2%

Source Characterisation Using Organic Geochemistry

• Coals/ coaly shales

• Good quality (HI > 250 mg/gTOC)

• Kerogen type II/III (non-marine)

• Good gas to oil + gas source potential.

Petroleum Systems Modelling for Play Analysis in the Cooper Basin – AAPG ICE 2015

• Shales

• Moderate quality (HI’s < 200 mg/gC)

• Kerogen type III/IV (non-marine)

• Gas prone

Toolachee Fm Roseneath Shale Murteree Shale

Oil

Oil+gas

Gas

Patchawarra Fm

• Shales

• High quality: HI > 300-500 mg/gC

• Kerogen type II, some Type I (marine)

• Oil prone

Barnett Shale (US)

Toolachee/ Patchawarra coals and shales are the best quality source rocks

Roseneath/ Murteree ‘shales’ do not behave like US shales

Jarvie et al.,

2005

Petroleum Generation Potential & Oil/ Gas Windows

• Cooper basin kinetics (Malhstedt et al., 2015):

• Characterises how kerogens transform to oil

and gas with increasing temperature/ maturity

• Cooper specific oil and gas maturity windows:

• Later onset of oil and gas generation compared

with US shales due to different kerogen type

Unconventional Gas Prospectivity Cooper Basin – APPEA 2015

Cooper

Basin

Barnett Shale (Jarvie et al.,2005)

Ro(%) Ro(%)

Early oil 0.75 - 0.9 0.55 – 0.9

Peak oil 0.9 - 1 0.9 – 1.15

Late oil 1 – 1.3

Wet gas 1.3 - 2 1.15 - 1.4

Dry gas 2 – 3.5 >1.4

Over-mature > 3.5 T

ran

sfo

rma

tio

n r

ati

o (

fra

cti

on

)

Source Rock Maturity (Ro %)

0

0.5

1

0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 2.8 3.2 3.6 4

Transformation Ratio

Cumulative oil expelled (/mass)

Cumulative gas expelled (/mass)

Source Rock Maturity

• Regional basin and petroleum systems

modelling study:

• Calibrated using over 90 wells (SA & QLD)

• Source rock maturity (Ro%):

• Maturity maps for key depth intervals

• large areas of the Nappamerri, Patchawarra

Troughs are gas mature

• Temperature maps


Nappamerri Trough (Burley-2)

Mid Patchawarra Top Murteree Mid Toolachee

Source Rock Maturity Maps for key surfaces (Ro%)

Hydrocarbon Generation Potential


Hydrocarbon Generation by Formation and Lithology (bboe)

• Total hydrocarbons generated by formation and lithology: the best source rocks are

the Patchawarra coals and coaly shales, followed by those of the Toolachee

Formation

• Total Hydrocarbons generated from the Permian Gidgealpa Group > 2000 bboe

Permian HCs

Generated

(mmboe/km2)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Oil and Gas Expelled and Retained


2000

2000

2000

20002000

3000

3000

3000

4000

40004000

4000 40004000

5000

5000

6000

400 500 600 700

6800

6900

7000

7100

7200

Mid Patch source GOR of Expelled Petroleum (scf/bbl) 0 Ma

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

160 km

u29945 Sep 11 2015

Expelled GOR

Work in progress

• Addition of expulsion models to regional basin and petroleum systems

model => maps of hydrocarbons expelled/ retained

• May be used to map state wide play maps and OHIP (shale gas, deep dry

coal gas, tight gas)

Patchawarra Formation - coal source rock

Cooper Prospectivity Study Outputs

Cooper Basin Prospectivity Report Series

• Mahlstedt et al., 2015. Multi-component kinetics and late gas potential of

selected Cooper Basin source rocks. GA Record 2015/19

• Hall, Hill, Troup et al., in review. Cooper Basin architecture and lithofacies.

• Hall, Boreham, Edwards, Hill, Troup et al., in prep. Source rock geochemistry of

the Cooper Basin

• Hall, Palu, Boreham et al., in prep. Cooper Basin petroleum systems modelling

Data products

• Source Rock Atlas of the Cooper Basin.

Recent conference presentations:

• Kuske et al., 2015. Source Rocks of the Cooper Basin. AAPG ICE.

• Hall et al., 2015. Petroleum systems modelling in Cooper Basin. AAPG ICE.

• Hall et al., 2015. Unconventional gas prospectivity of the Cooper Basin. APPEA

2015 extended abstract


Malhstedt et al. (2015) GA Record

Download from www.ga.gov.au

http://www.ga.gov.au/

Cooper Basin Resource Assessment

Updated assessments required for the Cooper Basin

• Uses new data from recent exploration for shales;

• Incorporates tight oil and gas, deep coals; and

• Is completely transparent and reproducible

GA assessment

• Roseneath and Murteree shales

• Probabilistic Volumetric Analysis method

• Preliminary assessment now complete

• Assessments for other play types to follow

USGS assessment

• Data pack supplied to the USGS 2014

• Assessment to take place late 2015?


Roseneath and

Murteree Shales

Report Unit Total GIP (tcf)

ACOLA (2013) REM 327

EIA (2013) REM 517

GA

(unpublished)

R-M P90 – 71

P50 – 130

P10 – 220

Cooper subregion -

Bioregional Assessment

• Collaboration between the Department of the

Environment, the Bureau of Meteorology,

CSIRO and Geoscience Australia

• Aim: to better understand the potential impacts

of coal seam gas and large coal mining

developments on water resources and water-

related assets

• Support to GA’s bioregional assessment team

through sharing of regional data

• Cooper subregion – Lake Eyre Basin Bioregional

Assessment products to date:

• Context statement

• Coal and coal seam gas resource

assessment

• Data register


Download from

http://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/

Contributions to Roadmap Recommendations:

Subsurface Geology

• Update ORGCHEM database and conduct source rock

geochemistry review (Recommendation 27)

• Development of regional maps at key stratigraphic levels

for the following (Recommendation 52)

• structure surfaces in depth

• Ro%, temperature maps

• characterize and map Original Hydrocarbons in

Place for each play (OHIP)

• National play maps: development of regional maps

delineating play-trend areas for shale gas, Deep CSG,

Tight Gas, and Coals (Recommendation 31)

• Publications to attract investment focused on describing

unconventional gas plays (Recommendation 45)


ORGCHEM Ro (%) Input for

play-trend

mapping

GIP

Reports

Phone: +61 2 6249 9111

Web: www.ga.gov.au

Email: [email protected]

Address: Cnr Jerrabomberra Avenue and Hindmarsh Drive, Symonston ACT 2609

Postal Address: GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601

Thank you [email protected]

cooper basin regional petroleum prospectivity studies

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