Australian Organic Geochemistry Database for Petroleum Exploration

Geoscience Australia's database comprises analytical results for petroleum exploration samples, including source rocks, crude oils, and natural gases collected across the Australian continent. The data are produced by a wide range of analytical techniques, such as programmed pyrolysis, gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry. Sample data originate from industry reports under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006, from geological surveys, and from open file publications.

Use Cases

• Typing petroleum fluids into families based on organic chemical analyses.
• Correlating crude oils to their source rock to determine depositional environment and migration distances.
• Mapping the extent of total petroleum systems based on derived datasets and value-add products.
• Characterizing natural gas resources based on molecular and isotopic content analyses.

Strengths

• Data originates from a wide range of analytical techniques, including programmed pyrolysis, GC, GCMS, and GC-TC-IRMS.
• Sample data are sourced from industry reports under specific legislation, geological surveys, and open publications.
• The database enables digital discoverability and accessibility to key petroleum geochemical datasets via web services.

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.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia and its predecessor organisations (AGSO, BMR), state and territory geological organisations, petroleum industry reports, and open file publications.

Collection Method

Analytical results from physical samples, well completion reports, destructive analysis reports, and geological sampling programs.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 20:05:51.044626; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian continent.