The project, involving stratigraphic drilling of the Vines-1 well, has been designed to ultimately help the oil and gas industry in what is considered an under-explored area.

The Vines-1, which is located just south of the Musgrave Block, and close to the South Australian border about 1300km north-east of Perth, encountered a gas show in a fracture system.

The well was spudded in mid-1999 and reached a total depth of 2017.5m with the drill hole continually cored from 44.5m to its final depth.

Director of Geological Survey Dr Tim Griffin said analyses of cores, cuttings, and logs from Vines-1 provided new data for the reservoir, source rock and biostratigraphic interpretation of the Officer Basin.

Dr Griffin said the Vines Well Completion Report will be used along with outcrop studies, for correlation with wells drilled previously in the basin.

The Officer Basin, which occupies an area of 350,000 square kilometres, extends 1500 km from the southwestern flank of the Pilbara Craton to the central west of South Australia.

Work on the Officer Basin, which started in 1994, has involved drilling three deep stratigraphic holes and three gravity surveys.

Much of the project also involved office-based studies using open file data of mining and petroleum company exploration reports lodged with the department.

The Officer Basin work forms part of the on going petroleum studies program that also currently takes in the Perth, Southern Carnarvon and Canning Basins.

Dr Griffin said potential markets for any oil or gas found in the basin included mining centres, Alice Springs or the WA coast, which is between 250 to 600km from the basin.

The Vines-1 'Well Completion Report' is available as Record 2001/18 on CD for $22.00 (incl GST) from the Mineral House Information Centre located at Level 1, 100 Plain Street, East Perth, or by telephoning (08) 9222 3459.