The Cooper-Eromanga petroleum province, Australia

Abstract

This review focuses on integrating old literature with present-day models to provide a modern summary of Australia’s largest onshore hydrocarbon province, the Cooper–Eromanga Basin, with a focus on structural geology and geophysics. A rapid rise in cutting-edge research has been facilitated by hydrocarbon companies transitioning to technically more challenging plays and feasibility studies assessing the carbon capture and storage potential of the basin. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers and new and existing operating companies with an integrated summary of recent research and the fundamentals of the structurally complex basin with the aim of ensuring that the hydrocarbon potential can be effectively explored and appropriately developed, and that the carbon capture and storage potential of the basin is appropriately evaluated. A modern tectonostratigraphic evolution model is presented alongside the stress regime, orientation and magnitude of the six events that have affected the province (N–S Carboniferous Alice Springs Orogeny; SE–NW mid-Permian event; NE–SW late Permian Daralingie event; E–W Triassic Hunter–Bowen Event; E–W Late Cretaceous event; N–S Paleogene event). Integration of complete paleo-stress tensors with geomechanical models has constrained the dynamic reactivation (shear and tensile) of faults through time and space to find that since the critical time (90 Ma), N–S- and E–W-striking high-angle (50–70°) faults were most likely facilitating hydrocarbon migration. These form the major topics of the review as they can significantly impact exploration and development success and effective carbon capture and storage. In addition, the four-dimensional distribution of natural fractures away from the wellbore, seismic time-to-depth conversion methods and accuracies, petroleum systems elements and processes, current and future exploration programs, common hydraulic fracturing and well surveillance programs, and recommendations for future research are also discussed. The methodologies, cutting-edge research and novel approaches presented here form a framework that can be applied to other hydrocarbon provinces around the world, while also providing a knowledge platform for this highly prospective hydrocarbon and potential carbon storage province.