Australian Onshore Petroleum Exploration History and Potential Assessment

Australia's search for petroleum began in onshore Paleozoic basins, leading to discoveries like the Mereenie oil field in the 1960s and Blina in the 1980s. The dataset is a conference abstract and presentation from Geoscience Australia and partners, prepared for the APPEA Conference & Exhibition in 2013. It discusses the shift back to onshore exploration for shale and tight gas, noting the near-doubling of licensed area from 2010 to 2012.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical trends in Australian petroleum exploration based on the timeline of major discoveries.
• Assess the potential for shale and tight gas resources based on the described focus on lower Paleozoic and Proterozoic systems.
• Study the geographic distribution of hydrocarbon resources based on the mentioned onshore basins like Amadeus and Canning.
• Review the shift in exploration focus from offshore Mesozoic basins back to onshore areas as described in the abstract.

Strengths

• Authored by multiple experts from Geoscience Australia and state/NT surveys.
• Includes specific historical data points, such as the discovery of the Mereenie oil field in the 1960s and the Blina discovery in the early 1980s.
• Cites a near-doubling of onshore basin area under exploration license from 2010 to 2012.

Limitations

• The primary data format is PDF/HTML, which may not be machine-readable for analysis.
• 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 Data

Collection Method

Extended abstract and presentation prepared for a conference.

Time Range

Historical overview from mid-20th century to 2013, with specific data points from 1960s, 1980s, and 2010-2012.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 03:26:38.197920; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, focusing on onshore basins including Amadeus Basin and Canning Basin.