Geltwood Beach No. 1 Well: Otway Basin Drilling Summary and Results

12,300 feet was the total depth drilled for the Geltwood Beach No. 1 Well in the Otway Basin, South Australia. The well was drilled between August 22 and November 10, 1963, by Drilling Contractors (Australia) Pty Ltd for Beach Petroleum No Liability, with a full program of logging, testing, and coring. It was plugged and abandoned as a dry hole after tests yielded only gas-cut salty water and drilling mud.

Use Cases

• Modeling subsurface stratigraphy based on described sediment sequences from Recent to Lower Cretaceous.
• Analyzing hydrocarbon potential based on recorded traces of gas and drillstem test results.
• Studying the geological structure of the Otway Basin based on the well's location on the Geltwood Anticline.
• Researching historical petroleum exploration subsidized under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act 1959-1961.

Strengths

• Detailed operational summary includes specific dates (Aug 22 - Nov 10, 1963) and total depth (12,300 ft).
• Stratigraphic description provides thicknesses for geological units (e.g., 1860 ft of Miocene to Eocene sediments).
• Clear statement of objective: to test hydrocarbon potential of Lower Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous sediments.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified; the last update timestamp (2026-04-20) appears to be a future date.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Drilling, logging, testing, and coring operations conducted at the well site.

Time Range

1963-08-22 to 1963-11-10

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 03:47:54.033186; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Otway Basin, approximately 7.5 miles south-west of Millicent, South Australia, Australia.