AGSO Marine Survey 207: Hydrocarbon Detection in NW Australian Waters (1998)

The Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO) conducted a regional water column geochemical survey from Dampier to west of Darwin between 21 September and 23 October 1998. The survey acquired 4,788 line kilometers of 'sniffer' data across 160 lines to detect natural hydrocarbon seepage in the Northern Carnarvon Basin, offshore Canning Basin, Yampi Shelf, and Southern Bonaparte Basin. Data collection was performed from the vessel TSMV Pacific Conquest.

Use Cases

• Mapping hydrocarbon seepage intensity based on reported methane and ethane concentration levels.
• Correlating geochemical anomalies with geological structures like seal thickness mentioned in the description.
• Assessing background versus anomalous hydrocarbon levels in different survey areas like Skua and AC/P series.
• Validating seismic interpretations of hydrocarbon leakage where the regional seal thins onto basement.

Strengths

• Covers a significant spatial extent with 4,788 line kilometers of acquired data.
• Provides specific concentration levels (weak, moderate, strong) for methane and ethane in named areas.
• Offers temporal repeatability for some locations, with data from 1998 compared to a 1996 survey (S176).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data files are in PDF and ZIP formats, which may require extraction and parsing before analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Marine survey using a water column geochemical 'sniffer' program.

Time Range

21 September to 23 October 1998

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 12:50:09.814433; freshness should be verified.

Geography

NW Australian Margin, from Dampier to west of Darwin, covering the Northern Carnarvon Basin, offshore Canning Basin, Yampi Shelf, and Southern Bonaparte Basin.