Lyla Lindsey
Australia has a variety of oil and natural gas resources, though it is a net importer of oil. Oil is a liquid that forms when organic matter is buried and exposed to heat and pressure over time. Natural gas is a fossil fuel formed from the decomposed remains of plants and animals, consisting mainly of methane. In Australia, natural gas is extracted from underground reservoirs and transported through pipelines, while oil production and reserves are located across the country.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Location of oil and gas in Australia | The majority of oil and gas in Australia is found offshore in the North West Shelf, including the Northern Carnarvon Basin, Browse Basin, and the Perth Basin. There are also oil and gas fields in the Gippsland and Cooper basins in south-eastern Australia. |
| Type of gas | Conventional gas and coal seam gas (CSG) are the most important gas resources for energy generation and export in Australia. |
| Composition of natural gas | Natural gas consists of a mixture of methane and heavier hydrocarbons, as well as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide, and helium. |
| Oil and gas companies in Australia | The oil and gas sector in Australia is dominated by international companies such as Apache, BHP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Santos, Shell, and Woodside. Santos and Woodside are based in Australia. |
| Oil and gas production | In 2022, Australia's annual gas production increased by 3%, reaching 6,362 PJ. About 70% of natural gas production was exported. Australia is a net importer of oil, with about 12% of refinery feedstock produced domestically. |
| Oil and gas reserves | Australia's proven and probable (2P) reserves for conventional gas in 2022 were estimated at 78,061 PJ, while coal seam gas reserves were estimated at 30,859 PJ. Australia has significant undiscovered unconventional oil resources, including shale oil and tight oil. |
| First oil discovery | The first oil discovery in Australia was made near Lakes Entrance, Victoria in 1924. |
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What You'll Learn
Oil and gas in Western Australia
Western Australia is the nation's leading producer of petroleum, accounting for about 70% of the country's crude oil and condensate production. The state's petroleum sector includes crude oil, condensate, liquefied natural gas (LNG), natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas. LNG is the state's highest-value petroleum product and is used for cooking, heating, and as a lower-carbon fuel in electricity generation and transportation. It is also a key feedstock for manufacturing plastics and chemicals.
The Western Australian petroleum industry is the largest contributor to Australia's petroleum exports. The North West Shelf (NWS) is the primary location for production, with oil exports shipped from Port Hedland. The industry extracts crude oil, condensate, and natural gas from deep beneath the Earth's surface. A large plant located at Withnell Bay near Dampier produces LNG for export to Asian customers. Crude oil and most petroleum liquids are exported, while the remaining gas is sold to users in Western Australia.
The state's major producers are BHP, Woodside Energy, Vermilion Energy, Santos, and Roc Oil, who operate in the Carnarvon, Perth, and Canning Basins. The Carnarvon Basin is home to the North West Shelf Venture's LNG project, which has an export capacity of 16.3 million tonnes per year. The basin also contains several oil fields, including Vincent, Pyrenees, Okha, and Mutineer-Exeter. Oil production from the Carnarvon Basin accounts for around 60% of Australia's total oil production.
Most of Western Australia's petroleum production occurs at offshore production platforms, although many wells are situated on the mainland and on several islands off the coast, such as Thevenard Island and Barrow Island. The state's largest production platforms, North Rankin A and Goodwyn A, are located approximately 130 km west of Dampier and are operated by Woodside Energy. There are currently four major natural gas transmission pipelines supplying the Western Australian gas market: the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP), the Goldfields Gas Pipeline (GGP), the Parmelia Pipeline, and the Varanus Island trunk line.
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Oil and gas in Gippsland Basin
Oil and gas were first discovered in the Gippsland Basin in 1924, making it the site of the first oil field in Australia. Located in southeastern Victoria, the Gippsland Basin is about 200 km east of Melbourne and covers 46,000 km2, with approximately two-thirds of the basin located offshore. It is bounded to the north by the Paleozoic basement of the Eastern Uplands, to the west by uplifted Lower Cretaceous fault blocks, and to the southwest by the Bassian Rise, which separates it from the neighbouring Bass Basin.
The Gippsland Basin is one of Australia's most prolific hydrocarbon provinces and is Victoria's most productive petroleum province. Exploration since the 1960s has yielded several world-class oil and gas fields, including the Kingfish oil field, discovered in 1967, which remains Australia's largest petroleum discovery. The basin contains in excess of 10 km of Cretaceous to Neogene sediments, with major fold structures at the top of the Latrobe Group hosting large oil and gas accumulations such as Barracouta, Tuna, Kingfish, Snapper, and Halibut.
The Gippsland Basin is estimated to contain reserves of 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and ethane, as well as 220 million barrels of oil and condensate. Remaining reserves are estimated at 400 MMbbl of liquids and 6 Tcf of gas. A network of pipelines brings the produced hydrocarbons to the onshore petroleum processing facilities near Longford, and a new network of gas pipelines distributes Gippsland Basin gas to customers in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia.
The Gippsland Basin has both onshore and offshore components, and to date, all commercial petroleum discoveries in the basin have been found offshore. Amplitude Energy produces natural gas from two wells in the Sole gas field, which are about 65 km offshore from Victoria's coastline. The gas from these wells is connected to the onshore Orbost Gas Processing Plant via a pipeline.
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$12.5
Oil and gas in Cooper Basin
Oil and gas exploration of the Cooper Basin began in 1962, with the first commercial discovery of gas occurring on New Year's Eve 1963. The basin, which covers an area of approximately 127,000 square kilometres, is located mainly in the southwestern part of Queensland and extends into northeastern South Australia. It is named after the Cooper Creek, an ephemeral river that runs into Lake Eyre. The surface of the basin is mostly desert, including parts of the Simpson Desert, the Channel Country, and the Sturt Stony Desert.
The Cooper Basin has Australia's most important onshore petroleum and natural gas deposits. The oil and gas window is located 1,250 metres below the surface and was originally discovered in the 1960s. The basin includes Australia's largest onshore oil field, the Jackson oil field, which was discovered in 1981. Overall, there are 160 gas fields and 75 oil fields in production, containing about 630 producing gas wells and more than 340 producing oil wells. The largest producer in the basin is Santos Limited, with its main production facility at Moomba, South Australia, at the head of the Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System.
The oil and gas deposits in the Cooper Basin tend to be fairly small and fragmentary, but highly economical given the relatively low cost of drilling and completion. The basin is a Permian-Triassic sedimentary geological basin, with the major source rock units being the Permian-aged coals and carbonaceous shales in the Patchawarra and Toolachee Formations. Natural gas reservoirs are found in sandstones in multiple formations, including the Patchawarra Formation, Epsilon Formation, and Toolachee Formation.
In recent years, there has been a focus on maximising efficiencies and operating only the best wells across the basin. Demand for gas is expected to triple in the next few years, and Santos is buying 750 petajoules of Cooper Basin gas from its Horizon portfolio to fuel its Gladstone LNG plant. Beach Energy is also active in the basin, with a 33% ownership interest in the Moomba CCS Project, one of the world's largest CCS projects, which will deliver a material greenhouse gas reduction.
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Oil and gas in Browse Basin
Oil and gas exploration in the Browse Basin, located entirely offshore in north-western Australia, began in 1967. The basin covers about 223,000 square kilometres and contains an upper Paleozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary section up to 15 kilometres thick. The Browse Basin is a proven hydrocarbon province, with major undeveloped gas/condentate fields in the outer and central basin, and minor oil discoveries on the basin's eastern margin.
The identified reserves at the end of 2000 were 0.48 GL of oil, 94.3 GL of condensate, and 858.96 BCM of gas. The basin has a highly encouraging hydrocarbon discovery rate, with over 140 wells drilled across it, yielding over 25 hydrocarbon discoveries, including the Ichthys (2003) and Prelude (2006) gas fields. The combined gas reserves of the fields in the basin total over 900 Gm3 (33.4 thousand cubic feet), but only two have been developed, mainly due to their isolated location in deep waters.
The Browse Basin is Australia's largest untapped conventional gas resource. Woodside Energy Ltd, as the operator for and on behalf of the Browse Joint Venture, is proposing to develop the Brecknock, Calliance, and Torosa fields located approximately 425 km north of Broome in the offshore Browse Basin. The proposed development concept includes two floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities delivering 11.4 Mtpa of LNG/LPG and domestic gas, and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) solution to abate reservoir carbon dioxide (CO2).
The Browse Basin developed during six major tectonic phases, with the initial extension resulting in half-graben geometries and the formation of two distinct depocentres, the Caswell and Barcoo Sub-basins. These depocentres contain in excess of 15 km of sedimentary section and lie in 100 to 1500 metres of water depth. The outer basin, Browse Basin, underlies the deep-water Scott Plateau (1500-4000 metres water depth), with the Carboniferous section being predominantly fluvio-deltaic and the Permian-Early Triassic section being marine.
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Oil and gas in Carnarvon Basin
Oil and gas reserves in Australia are largely found in the offshore north-western region of the country. The Carnarvon Basin, located in this region, is a major hydrocarbon province, with a large number of oil and gas fields. The basin is divided into the Northern and Southern Carnarvon Basin, with the latter being predominantly onshore.
The Northern Carnarvon Basin is considered the premier hydrocarbon basin in Australia and is one of the country's more intensely explored areas. It is characterised by the presence of two distinct petroleum systems: the Upper Jurassic Dingo Claystone and the Triassic Locker Shale-Mungaroo formations. These formations act as effective source rocks for oil and gas accumulations, which are primarily found within the sandstones of the Upper Triassic, Jurassic, and Lower Cretaceous periods. The Barrow and Dampier Sub-basins, in particular, are known for their rich hydrocarbon reserves, with new discoveries continuing to be made despite intense historical exploration.
The Southern Carnarvon Basin, on the other hand, is a large, predominantly onshore basin on the Western Australian poly-phased margin. Exploration in this region has been limited, with only about 30 exploration wells drilled, including just two offshore wells. Minor gas shows have been encountered in some wells, but there have been no significant discoveries yet. The basin consists of several sub-basins, including the Gascoyne, Merlinleigh, Bidgemia, and Byro Sub-basins, and the Bernier Platform.
The Exmouth Sub-basin, located within the Northern Carnarvon Basin, is another important area for oil and gas exploration. The first exploration well in the basin, Rough Range 1, discovered oil in 1953, and subsequent discoveries at Barrow Island and North Tryal Rocks established the region's hydrocarbon potential. The Exmouth Sub-basin has a historical technical success rate of 22% and contains reserves of gas, condensate, and oil.
Overall, the Carnarvon Basin is a crucial region for Australia's oil and gas industry, with ongoing exploration and production activities contributing to the country's energy sector.
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Frequently asked questions
Oil is found in the North West Shelf of Australia, some distance from domestic east coast refining capacity. Oil shale deposits are also found in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.
Natural gas is found in eastern Australia, in the Gippsland, Otway, Cooper, Bass, and Surat-Bowen basins. It is also found in the Carnarvon and Perth basins in Western Australia and the Bonaparte basin in the Northern Territory.
Oil is a liquid that forms when organic matter is buried and exposed to increasing heat and pressure over time.
Natural gas is extracted from natural underground reservoirs. It is formed from the decomposed remains of plants and animals over millions of years.
