A Review of Petroleum Exploration and Prospects in the Gippland Basin

Updated: 2018-04-20

Petroleum exploration carried out in the Gippsland Basin up to February 1976 has been reviewed to provide a current assessment of knowledge of the basin and to determine the need for further exploration. The Gippsland Basin is a Late Mesozoic to Cainozoic Basin located mainly offshore in the northeastern portion of Bass Strait, between the mainland of Australia and Tasmania. It is roughly triangular in shape, being narrowest onshore in Victoria to the northwest and broadening towards the edge of the continental slope to the southeast. It contains up to 4500 in of fluvio-deltaic and marine sediments, which have been subjected to faulting, drape folding and channel erosion. To date, the Gippsland Basin has been by far the most prolific petroleum producing basin in Australia, with initial reserves of more than 300 x 106 m3 of oil and 200 x 109 m3 of natural gas. The basin has been actively explored geophysically since the early 1960s and all of the larger and more obvious structures have been drilled. The basin still has some exploration potential at deeper levels than the main Eocene producing zones, but detailed seismic mapping of deeper horizons is difficult and requires the best seismic technology available. It seems likely that the greater part of the recoverable petroleum in the basin has already been found, but there is some potential for further discoveries.