“The Bremer Sub-basin is a frontier depocentre and one of a series of Mesozoic extensional basins along Australia’s southern margin,” Geoscience researcher Chris Nicholson told a seminar at the APPEA conference on the Gold Coast last week.

“To date, seismic has been sparse. As part of the Big New Oil program, an integrated basin analysis was undertaken based on newly acquired seismic and dredge rock samples.”

Geoscience Australia says the Bremer has the right geological conditions for generating and trapping oil and gas, and it offers several potentially huge hydrocarbon traps of 100 million or more barrels.

But it is a deepwater basin and many of the larger potential deposits were at the bottom of 2000-4000m deep canyons.

With exploration at such depths being risky and expensive, finds must be huge to justify the cost.

Geoscience Australia is offering the industry seismic data, as well as geological sampling and oil seep detection information from several Australian frontier basins, including the Bremer, Mentelle, Vlaming and Arafura basins.

The agency said initial seismic results and dredging in the Bremer showed similar potential for oil and gas fields as the Bass Strait.

APPEA 2006 Conference news is proudly brought to you by