Integrating Stress and Strain Data from the North West Shelf, Australia: Implications for Hydrocarbon Seal Integrity. Many exploration wells in the Australian North West Shelf encounter residual columns from which hydrocarbons have leaked due to fault reactivation. Recently there has been a significant increase in our knowledge of contemporary stress (from data such as borehole breakouts)
and strain (from fault reactivation styles) on the North West Shelf.
This project will integrate informati ....Integrating Stress and Strain Data from the North West Shelf, Australia: Implications for Hydrocarbon Seal Integrity. Many exploration wells in the Australian North West Shelf encounter residual columns from which hydrocarbons have leaked due to fault reactivation. Recently there has been a significant increase in our knowledge of contemporary stress (from data such as borehole breakouts)
and strain (from fault reactivation styles) on the North West Shelf.
This project will integrate information on stress and strain in order to investigate whether the current state-of-stress is consistent with
observed reactivation styles, and thus develop predictive models for
fault reactivation and hydrocarbon leakage based on the distribution of
stress and strain.Read moreRead less
A highly resolved chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental framework for Pre-Salt Brazilian core basins. Hydrocarbon production and exploration today support viable economies. The engagement of industry with higher learning institutions will advance and enhance the discipline of petroleum geology, with a resultant spectrum from new sources of oil and gas to significantly reducing CO2 emissions (and decreasing the impact of global warming). National and community benefits are diverse: training ....A highly resolved chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental framework for Pre-Salt Brazilian core basins. Hydrocarbon production and exploration today support viable economies. The engagement of industry with higher learning institutions will advance and enhance the discipline of petroleum geology, with a resultant spectrum from new sources of oil and gas to significantly reducing CO2 emissions (and decreasing the impact of global warming). National and community benefits are diverse: training and research support for many graduate students and staff in Australia, a better understanding of ancient greenhouse climates, testing and refinement of new techniques (e.g. bioevents, biosteering) in petroleum studies and practical experience of integrating data from frontier exploration wells.Read moreRead less
Three dimensional computational models of geological basin and hinterland evolution incorporating lithospheric mantle and surface processes. Petroleum exploration in deepwater areas offshore Australia is becoming increasingly important as more accessible, shallow water oil reserves near exhaustion. Geological simulation is an important tool for understanding deep water basins where geophysical imaging techniques are less effective. This project will develop 3D computational models relevant to un ....Three dimensional computational models of geological basin and hinterland evolution incorporating lithospheric mantle and surface processes. Petroleum exploration in deepwater areas offshore Australia is becoming increasingly important as more accessible, shallow water oil reserves near exhaustion. Geological simulation is an important tool for understanding deep water basins where geophysical imaging techniques are less effective. This project will develop 3D computational models relevant to understanding the development and evolution of geological basins and the sediments that fill them. The models will be integrated with available offshore data for potentially prospective Australian basins in the Northwest Shelf and the Southern Australian margin.Read moreRead less
Thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution. We propose to create a thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution as a desktop geodynamic modelling resource for exploration geologists. The atlas will allow the user to iteratively run our 2D/3D basin modelling software ELLIPSIS to alter model parameters until they match observed basin geometries or thermal history. Model iteration will be based on interactive user evaluation of model outputs and genetic algorithms, which pr ....Thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution. We propose to create a thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution as a desktop geodynamic modelling resource for exploration geologists. The atlas will allow the user to iteratively run our 2D/3D basin modelling software ELLIPSIS to alter model parameters until they match observed basin geometries or thermal history. Model iteration will be based on interactive user evaluation of model outputs and genetic algorithms, which progressively modify the solution set by mimicking the evolutionary behavior of biological systems (selection, cross-over and mutation), until an acceptable result is achieved. The interactive atlas will be applied to Australian and international case studies.Read moreRead less
The climate evolution of high latitude 140 to 90 million year old hydrocarbon prospective strata of Southeast Australia. Melbourne University and the Royal Botanic Gardens will collaborate with three companies to investigate climate variability in a 140 to 90 million year old greenhouse record in southeast Australia. Spore, pollen & algal studies integrated with wood & plant analyses and zircon dating will improve age estimates of hydrocarbon reservoirs in Gippsland where Lakes Oil and Nexus E ....The climate evolution of high latitude 140 to 90 million year old hydrocarbon prospective strata of Southeast Australia. Melbourne University and the Royal Botanic Gardens will collaborate with three companies to investigate climate variability in a 140 to 90 million year old greenhouse record in southeast Australia. Spore, pollen & algal studies integrated with wood & plant analyses and zircon dating will improve age estimates of hydrocarbon reservoirs in Gippsland where Lakes Oil and Nexus Energy are exploring in one of Australia's premier oil & gas producing regions. This work will lead to a better understanding of climate change in long-term greenhouse conditions. Knowledge of this in the past is critical to prediction of climate change into the futureRead moreRead less
Chronostratigraphic Framework for the Devonian Canning Basin - A Multidisciplinary Record of Environmental Change. Our detailed chronostratigraphic framework for Canning Basin and the biomarker data on source rock history provides an increased understanding of the resource potential of the basin and similar settings worldwide. Furthermore this high-fidelity data will be used by companies to develop the 'next' generation of hydrocarbon industry modelling workflows. Our research program also has i ....Chronostratigraphic Framework for the Devonian Canning Basin - A Multidisciplinary Record of Environmental Change. Our detailed chronostratigraphic framework for Canning Basin and the biomarker data on source rock history provides an increased understanding of the resource potential of the basin and similar settings worldwide. Furthermore this high-fidelity data will be used by companies to develop the 'next' generation of hydrocarbon industry modelling workflows. Our research program also has important environmental implications; providing insight into drivers for Devonian mass extinctions and as periods of past biotic crises become increasingly understood they can provide critical insights into determining the thresholds of environmental change, which may potentially serve as analogues for present-day global climate change scenarios.Read moreRead less
Sediment transport in upwelling currents and its relevance to an active petroleum system in the Morum Sub-basin, South Australia. Australia had a trade deficit of $3.5 billion in petroleum products in 2005 and this is forecast to increase dramatically in the future. Giant oil fields may exist in the Morum Sub-basin and their exploitation could significantly reduce Australia's trade deficit in petroleum products. It would also reduce Australia's reliance on oil form politically unstable parts of ....Sediment transport in upwelling currents and its relevance to an active petroleum system in the Morum Sub-basin, South Australia. Australia had a trade deficit of $3.5 billion in petroleum products in 2005 and this is forecast to increase dramatically in the future. Giant oil fields may exist in the Morum Sub-basin and their exploitation could significantly reduce Australia's trade deficit in petroleum products. It would also reduce Australia's reliance on oil form politically unstable parts of the globe. Any exploration activity and subsequent exploration success would have a significant effect on the rural economy based around Portland, the main port in the area, through which most of the logistics would flow.Read moreRead less