Australian Onshore Petroleum Exploration History and Potential

Geoscience Australia and partners authored a 2013 conference abstract on Australia's petroleum exploration. The document describes a historical shift from onshore Paleozoic basins to offshore Mesozoic basins, and a renewed focus on onshore shale and tight gas potential from 2010-2012. It cites specific discoveries like the Mereenie oil field and the Blina discovery.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical trends in Australian petroleum exploration based on the described shift from onshore to offshore and back.
• Study the geological potential of specific Australian basins based on mentions of the Ordovician, Devonian, and Proterozoic systems.
• Research the involvement of international companies in Australian exploration based on the note of their entry around 2010-2012.

Strengths

• Authored by Geoscience Australia and state/NT survey partners, indicating institutional authority.
• Provides specific historical examples like the Mereenie (1960s) and Blina (early 1980s) discoveries.
• Notes a concrete trend of onshore exploration license area nearly doubling from 2010 to 2012.

Limitations

• The dataset is a PDF/HTML conference abstract, not a structured data table; column-level documentation is absent.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for quantitative analysis.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to a 2013 publication; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (host), Geoscience Australia and state/NT survey partners (authors).

Collection Method

Likely contains compiled geological assessments and historical exploration analysis.

Time Range

Focuses on exploration history up to 2013, with specific references from the 1960s to 2012.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 07:09:12.450109; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Covers onshore Australian basins, including the Amadeus Basin and Canning Basin.