Canning Basin Crude Oil Biomarker Data for Paleo-Environmental Reconstruction

Geochemical data from crude oils and source rocks in the Paleozoic Canning Basin, a large frontier petroleum province. The dataset contains diagnostic biomarker hydrocarbons derived from carotenoid pigments, used to clarify paleo-depositional environments and organic matter diversity. It was implemented by GeoMark Research and published by Geoscience Australia.

Use Cases

• Modeling paleo-depositional environments based on carotenoid-derived biomarker distributions.
• Assessing water column stratification in ancient seas based on the presence of biomarkers from green and purple sulphur bacteria.
• Correlating oils to specific source rock intervals (e.g., Ordovician, Devonian, Carboniferous) based on biomarker signatures.
• Characterizing the diversity of contributing organic matter in petroleum systems based on saturated and aromatic C40 compounds.

Strengths

• Focuses on a large frontier petroleum province covering approximately 720,000 km2.
• Analyses oils from multiple specific fields and wells (e.g., Ungani, Blina, Dodonea 1, Pictor).
• Extends prior published geochemistry studies from 2013, 2017, and 2018.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in PDF format, which may complicate direct analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Geochemical analysis of diagnostic biomarker hydrocarbons from crude oils and source rocks.

Time Range

Paleozoic era (specifically Ordovician, Devonian, Carboniferous periods).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 02:38:39.208933; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia.