Review of stratigraphy, structure, and hydrocarbon potential of Bass basin, Australia

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1987 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

OSTI ID:5406726

Williamson, P E; Pigram, C J; Colwell, J B; Scherl, A S; Lockwood, K L; Branson, J C ^[1]

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1. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Canberra (Australia)

The intracratonic Bass basin is the central basin of three that underlie Bass Strait in southeastern Australia. The basin was formed by extensional tectonics during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. It contains up to 7 km (23,000 ft) of nonmarine sediments of ( )Late Jurassic to late Eocene age and up to 3.5 km (11,500 ft) of upper Eocene to Holocene marine sediments. Volcanics occur in places. The sedimentary history of the basin is interpreted to have been dominated initially by Cretaceous flood-plain, alluvial-fan, and lacustrine deposition, then Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary flood-plain deposition, and finally, Cenozoic shallow marine deposition. Seismic reflection studies show that significant structural and stratigraphic prospects for petroleum exploration occur at Paleocene, Cretaceous, and ( )Jurassic levels. Source rock studies combined with depositional models for the Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene non-marine fill suggest that suitable source and reservoir rocks occur at these levels. Present-day maturation levels of organic matter in sediments of the basin suggest that mature levels for petroleum generation occur at 3-5 km (10,000-16,000 ft) depth, which generally corresponds to Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene sediments. An analysis of the maturation history of the basin suggests that the lower levels of the Upper Cretaceous sediments had peak petroleum generation potential (R{sub 0} = 0.7%) by about 40 Ma, whereas the upper levels of the Paleocene sediments have attained this level of maturity only in the last 5 m.y. 22 figs., 2 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 5406726
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA), Vol. 71:3; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
AUSTRALIA
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
SOURCE ROCKS
MATURATION
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEPOSITION
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
JURASSIC PERIOD
RESERVOIR ROCK
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
STRATIGRAPHY
TERTIARY PERIOD
AUSTRALASIA
CENOZOIC ERA
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
RESOURCES
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration