Esso Gippsland Shelf No 1: Australia's First Offshore Well Drilling Log

Esso Gippsland Shelf No. 1, Australia's first offshore well, was drilled to a total depth of 8701 feet between December 1964 and June 1965. The well logged a 353-foot gas column in the Eocene Latrobe Valley Coal Measures, with production tests yielding up to 6.85 million cubic feet of gas per day. This dataset from Geoscience Australia documents the stratigraphic and operational details of this landmark discovery.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical drilling performance based on the documented depth and timeline from spudding to completion.
• Model gas reservoir characteristics based on the logged 353-foot gas column and production test flow rates.
• Study stratigraphic sequences in the Gippsland Basin based on the described Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous sections.
• Benchmark offshore exploration technology based on the use of the 268-foot drilling vessel 'Glomar III'.

Strengths

• Contains specific, factual drilling metrics including a total depth of 8701 feet and a 353-foot gas column.
• Documents a historically significant event as Australia's first offshore discovery well.
• Includes detailed production test results with flow rates up to 6.85 MMcf/D.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to a single historical event from 1964-1965.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Drilling and logging operation by Esso Exploration Australia, Inc., subsidized under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act.

Time Range

Drilling occurred from 27 December 1964 to 5 June 1965.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 16:49:26.489877; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Gippsland Basin, approximately sixteen miles off Ninety Mile Beach, south-eastern Victoria, Australia.