And just-completed basin modelling indicates that the area has the potential to have generated large quantities of oil and gas.
Over the last 2½ years Bass Strait Oil has conducted a comprehensive modern exploration programme in T/42P and T/43P – the first exploration effort in this area since the early 1990s. Bass Strait Oil’s programme has consisted of:
— Recording, processing and interpreting the 1192 kilometer (km) Targa seismic survey
— Reprocessing and integrating 790 km of existing older seismic
— Modeling the petroleum generation potential of the area
— Analyzing and integrating previous exploration results and data
The results of this programme are highly encouraging for the Bass Strait Oil permits. In summary:
— The area is interpreted to contain a series of petroleum ‘kitchen’ areas which have the potential to have generated large volumes of oil and gas
— An inventory of large prospects has been defined on high quality data and a number of play types have been identified
— Basin modelling indicates short and direct migration pathways from the kitchen areas to prospects
— The interpreted timing of generation and trapping supports potential for untested accumulations
— Prospect integrity is interpreted to have been maintained since migration, preserving any accumulation
— Seismic mapping indicates that the two wells previously drilled in this region did not test valid traps and basin modeling indicates that these wells were not located on migration pathways.
