GeoScience Victoria: A base for petroleum discoveries

摘要

Dr Geoffrey O'Brien, GeoScience Victoria's Energy GeoScience Manager, explains how rapid developments within the Victorian petroleum sector have paved the way for a host of new energy developments and exploration successes. A series of new discoveries and significant exploration results helped the rapid advance of Victoria's energy sector in 2005-06. Significant discoveries included the Henry gas field in the eastern Otway Basin; and in the Gippsland Basin, the Basker-2 and Manta-2A wells and Nexus Energy's highly innovative Longtom-3 well were drilled. The Longtom-3H extended reach deviated well successfully tested four gas-bearing zones, highlighting the untapped hydrocarbon potential of the 'older and deeper' section of the Gippsland Basin. The Victorian Government held the Geothermal Energy Acreage Release Forum in April 2006, and invited applications to explore geothermal energy. A total of 31 geothermal exploration areas across Victoria were gazetted. The bidding process was open for six months, with 20 bids received. To support the bidding process, the VIMP 85 report, representing a preliminary assessment of the geothermal prospectivity of onshore Victoria, was released in April 2006. The report included a critical assessment of the quality of temperature data derived from groundwater bores, oil and gas exploration wells, mineral wells, stratigraphic wells and coal bores; and the development of a robust temperature database.