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

Esso Gippsland Shelf No. 1, Australia's first offshore well, was drilled in the Gippsland Basin off Victoria by Esso Exploration Australia, Inc. The well was spudded on December 27, 1964, reached a total depth of 8,701 feet, and was completed as a suspended gas well on June 5, 1965. The report details the stratigraphy, hydrocarbon shows, and production tests from the Latrobe Valley Coal Measures.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical offshore drilling operations based on the detailed timeline and technical specifications provided.
• Study stratigraphic sequences and hydrocarbon shows in the Gippsland Basin based on the described Tertiary and Cretaceous sections.
• Evaluate early gas production test results from the Latrobe Valley Coal Measures based on the reported flow rates.
• Research the impact of subsidy programs like the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act on exploration based on the mention of funding.

Strengths

• Provides precise historical dates and depths, including spud date (27 Dec 1964) and total depth (8,701 feet).
• Contains specific technical measurements from production tests, such as gas flow rates up to 6.85 MMcf/D.
• Documents a landmark event as Australia's first offshore discovery and first significant production from the Latrobe Valley Coal Measures.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic/temporal bias inherent to data_gov_au as a single historical case study.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Drilling operation report from the vessel 'Glomar III'.

Time Range

1964-1965

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 07:08:59.374808; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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