Australian Unconventional Hydrocarbon Exploration History and Assessment

Geoscience Australia and partners prepared an extended abstract and presentation for the 2013 APPEA Conference. The document details the historical shift in Australia's petroleum exploration from onshore Paleozoic basins to offshore Mesozoic basins and back again, highlighting discoveries like the Mereenie oil field. It discusses renewed focus on shale and tight gas potential in older onshore rocks from 2010 onward.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical trends in Australian petroleum exploration based on the described timeline of discoveries.
• Study the geological potential of specific Australian basins mentioned, such as the Amadeus and Canning Basins.
• Research the shift in industry focus towards unconventional hydrocarbons like shale and tight gas described in the document.

Strengths

• Authored by multiple experts from Geoscience Australia and state/NT surveys.
• Includes specific historical facts, such as the discovery of the Mereenie oil field in Ordovician rocks and the Blina discovery in the early 1980s.
• Cites a peer-reviewed publication in The APPEA Journal with a DOI (10.1071/AJ12083).

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.
• The primary content appears to be a conference abstract and presentation, which may not contain raw data tables.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia and its partners in state and Northern Territory surveys.

Collection Method

New assessments and studies undertaken by the authoring organizations.

Time Range

Discusses exploration from the 1960s through 2013, with specific mention of changes from 2010 to 2012.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 03:17:46.359646; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, focusing on onshore basins such as the Amadeus Basin and Canning Basin.