2008 Exploration review

Abstract

The year 2008 saw a global financial crisis and a collapse in the price of oil from its earlier highs in the latter part of the year. Not surprisingly, there was an overall decline in exploration activity for conventional oil and gas, although this consisted of a substantial fall in onshore activity partially offset by a modest increase in offshore activity. Activity in the coal seam gas (CSG) sector, on the other hand, continued the rapid growth trend that has been evident in the preceding 2 – 3 years. This sector can now be regarded as having ‘come of age’, and is reported for the first time in this review. Discoveries of conventional oil and gas were concentrated on the North West Shelf and in the Cooper/Eromanga basins, consistent with previous trends. Success rates were highest in the Browse, Bonaparte, Carnarvon and Cooper/ Eromanga basins. A total of 27 discoveries were recorded. In the CSG arena, reserve additions of almost 9,000 PJ were made in Eastern Australia during 2008, primarily in the Surat and Bowen basins. These reserve additions are expected to underpin the development of an LNG export industry in Queensland. Offshore licencing activity was down on 2007, with the Bonaparte and Browse basins having most new permits awarded. There was a resurgence of interest in onshore Queensland and NSW acreage for CSG exploration. Despite the drilling of a number of wildcat wells in frontier basins including the Murray, Darling, Sorrell, Canning and Pedirka, regrettably none was successful.