ABSTRACT: The Petroleum Potential of the Southern Strzeleci Terrace, Gippsland Basin

STEPHENSON, ANTHONY E., Bureau of Mineral Resources, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

The Southern Strzelecki Terrace of the Gippsland Basin has been very poorly explored, despite its proximity to the prolific oil and gas fields of the basin's Central Deep. Strzelecki Group sediments have traditionally been regarded as economic basement in the Gippsland Basin, but recent work in BMR has shown this to be a gross oversimplification in the Southern Strzelecki Terrace area. Thick Strzelecki Group sediments lie within the oil window in the area, and known hydrocarbons on the Terrace are thought to have migrated vertically from Strzelecki Group sources into overlying Latrobe Group traps. Potential traps within and at the top of the Strzelecki Group remain completely untested. All indications are that traps in both Groups were formed; prior to the main period of oil generatio and migration.

A large number of structures have been identified in the Southern Strzelecki Terrace -- undrilled to date because of their distance and direction from the known Central Deep hydrocarbon kitchen. Analysis of those wells which have been drilled in the area suggests nearly all were drilled off-structure. In addition, stratigraphic plays along the southern Gippsland margin remain virtually untested, and are thought to have considerable potential. The Southern Strzelecki Terrace of the Gippsland Basin is an almost unexplored area in a known hydrocarbon province, containing a number of possible plays.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91015©1992 AAPG International Conference, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia, August 2-5, 1992 (2009)