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

Australia's first offshore well, Esso Gippsland Shelf No. 1, was drilled in the Gippsland Basin, Victoria, between December 1964 and June 1965. It reached a total depth of 8,701 feet, discovering a 353-foot gas column in the Eocene Latrobe Valley Coal Measures and logging three production tests with flow rates up to 6.85 MMcf/D. The well represents a benchmark for petroleum exploration, marking the first offshore discovery and significant production from several geological formations in the region.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking geological formations based on the first recorded occurrences of porous sandstone in the Gippsland Limestone and Upper Cretaceous sections.
• Evaluating reservoir performance using the detailed gas and condensate flow rates from three production tests.
• Mapping stratigraphic sequences from the detailed Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous section depths and thicknesses.
• Studying the history of offshore energy exploration in Australia based on the well's pioneering status and technical specifications.

Strengths

• Contains highly specific, factual drilling and production data, including exact dates, depths, and flow rates.
• Represents a historically significant benchmark as Australia's first offshore discovery.
• Provides detailed lithological and stratigraphic observations from a key exploratory well.

Limitations

• The specific column names and data structure are not provided, limiting immediate analysis.
• The dataset's size, row count, and license information are not available from the sources.
• The provenance details for the original data collection and digitization are unclear.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Likely compiled from well completion reports and geological surveys.

Time Range

1964-12-27 to 1965-06-05 (drilling and testing period)

Freshness

Last updated on data.gov.au: 2026-06-27.

Geography

Gippsland Basin, approximately 16 miles off Ninety Mile Beach, Victoria, Australia.