Offshore Northern Perth Basin Petroleum Systems Reassessment

Geoscience Australia conducted a review of source rock and oil geochemical data for the offshore northern Perth Basin. The work supports the release of exploration blocks W13-19 and W13-20 and includes data from 5 wells on the Wittecarra Terrace and the Houtman-1 well. The dataset was last updated on 2026-04 10.

Use Cases

• Modeling petroleum system extent based on geochemical data tying offshore oil to the Hovea Member source rock.
• Assessing exploration prospectivity for blocks W13-19 and W13-20 based on integrated study findings.
• Correlating well data from the Wittecarra Terrace and Houtman Sub-basin to understand regional geology.

Strengths

• Includes data from 5 wells on the Wittecarra Terrace and the Houtman-1 well, providing specific control points.
• Supports a major integrated study aimed at reassessing the basin's prospectivity.
• Ties the Cliff Head oil discovery to the Hovea Member source rock, confirming an offshore petroleum system.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

A review of source rock and oil geochemical data as part of an integrated study.

Time Range

Study references exploration from 2001 onward, with data likely spanning historical and recent periods.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 22:11:22.870873; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Offshore northern Perth Basin, specifically the Houtman and Abrolhos Sub-basins, and parts of the Zeewyck and Gascoyne Sub-basins.