Bonaparte Basin contains several distinct sub-basins with more than 15 km of sedimentary thickness. An unpublished geochemical study (John Scott, 1999) sampled the petroleum types along the south western flank of the Bonaparte margin and suggests that the oils are derived from a Permian source facies. This new play concept considerably high-grades the liquid petroleum potential for the area.

In the central part of the Petrel sub-basin, the source is buried deep and the gas found in Petrel (600 BF) and Fishburn-1 most likely derived from over-mature Permian source rocks. The northern portion of the area is adjacent to the Jurassic shales located in the Malita Graben and has potential for new discoveries within the traditional Flamingo and Plover formations.

Fugro Multi Client Services has done full seismic reprocessing on most of the open-file data providing a consistent modern data grid, without any statics applied. This provides explorers with the opportunity to apply their own interpretation into any required depth conversions of the data.

For further information on this basin, please contact Owen Dyer.