IHS Studies - Australasia and Indian Sub-Continent
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Australasia
Australia and New Zealand are both largely unexplored. In onshore Australia alone there are more than 300 sedimentary basins, which cover an area of more than 10 million sq km. There have been just over 12,000 exploration and development wells drilled. This equates to roughly one well per 833 sq km of sedimentary basin.
Despite being under explored, significant infrastructure exists in the more mature areas, meaning that new discoveries can be quickly brought on stream to supply local, national and regional markets. Given the sparsely explored nature of the region, it is still highly probable that significant discoveries will be made if companies move away from the preferred areas of exploration into regions that are currently less favoured. |
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Once licences have been acquired, the fiscal terms are amongst the best in the world. In its Ratings and Rankings, IHS places Australia second, with New Zealand at 17 and Papua New Guinea at 19.
- Evaluation of Proven and Potential Gas Reserves, East Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Northwest Shelf of Australia, 1997
- Browse Basin Sequence Stratigraphy, 1992
- South East Asian Basin Bonaparte Basin Opportunities, 1992
- Barrow Exmouth Sub Basins Sequence Stratigraphy, 1992
- New Zealand: A Review of the Hydrocarbon Potential, 1991
- Andaman Sea A Hydrocarbon Evaluation, 1994
- Bengal Basin Opportunities, 1990
Indian Sub-Continent
Exploration in India has long been associated with an endless stream of time consuming bureaucracy, an ongoing series of inconclusive licensing rounds offering acreage of limited prospectivity and a non competitive fiscal and contractual regime. Significant changes have taken place over recent years and the country is recognising a need to overcome its deficiencies and address its position in the worldwide petroleum sector,
India is heavily dependent on imports to meet the growing demand to( petroleum products. With an annual average growth rate of between 6 7% (compared to a world average of 1.54%) as a result the country is currently the 1 11th largest consumer of oil/gas and forecast to be the fifth largest consumer in the next 20 years. Oil consumption is expected to grow rapidly from a current level of 2 million bo/d to 3.2 million bo/d by 2010. India is responsible for importing around 70% of its hydrocarbon requirements and has recognised the need to adopt a comprehensive approach to tackle its energy security needs. It embarked on a programme to dramatically overhaul the
petroleum sector in the mid 1990s arid a fasttrack approval mechanism has recently been established to help accelerate and streamline the licensing process, thereby removing the prolonged bureaucracy that had long been associated with contract signature. The outcome has been highly successful since the launch of the First Licensing Round under the NELP in January 1999, three further rounds have been concluded, giving rise to 90 contracts (34 deep water, 30 shallow water and 26 onshore) being awarded over the last four years compared to only 22 contracts in the preceding ten years.
6.1.1
Evaluation of Proven and Potential Gas Reserves, East Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Northwest Shelf of Australia, 1997
A thorough review of the region's petroleum geology emphasising the gas potential with details of existing discoveries, infrastructure, present and potential gas usage including LNG.
6.2.1
Browse Basin Sequence Stratigraphy, 1992
The report delineates Mesozoic Sequences and their facies distributions.
6.2.2
South East Asian Basin Bonaparte Basin Opportunities, 1992
A comprehensive report on the regional geology and exploration opportunities in this part of the Northwest Shelf.
- Geochemical data from 13 wells.
- Well log and seismic correlations, lithofacies, time structure and isopach maps.
- 220 pages.
- 46 figures.
- 12 enclosures.
6.3.1
Barrow Exmouth Sub Basins Sequence Stratigraphy, 1992
The report defines the time and spatial distribution of various depositional systems tracts.
6.4.1
Andaman Sea A Hydrocarbon Evaluation, 1994
A study of the Gulf of Matarban based on wells, seismic and schematic cross sections, giving a detailed understanding of the stratigraphy and structure of the basin and how this influences the petroleum geology.
6.5.1
Bengal Basin Opportunities, 1990
A comprehensive review of the petroleum geology, exploration history, play concepts and exploration acreage opportunities of this prospective petroleum basin.
6.6.1
Indian Oil and Gas Industry, 1995
An extensive review of previous and current upstream activity and opportunities, with many field examples and analogies. Provides basin descriptions and analysis of hydrocarbon potential, and describes the exploration and development history of the area.
6.6.2
Indian Oil and Gas Fields Atlas and Industry Review, 1997
An extensive review of the exploration and production sector including an atlas of more than 200 oil and gas fields.
- Over 150 figures.
- 7 enclosures and over 200 field data sheets.
6.7.1
Pakistan Lower Goru Sequence Stratigraphy, 1995
The Middle Indus Basin is a major gas province which contains 70% of Pakistan's known gas reserves and the area is considered to offer considerable potential. This detailed regional study of the upper Jurassic to Mid Cretaceous Lower Guru and Sembar Formations in the Middle Indus Basins in Pakistan and India was undertaken in association with the Pakistani authorities. It is based on new and existing geological, biostratigraphic and sedimentological data integrated with existing geochemical data and the results are tied to a regional seismic grid.
- Uses of 58 wells, both released and from operators, and approximately 13,000km of seismic data.
- High resolution correlation of the Lower Goru Sembar interval using sequence stratigraphy, based on the integration of seismic data, biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, wirellre logs and core logging.
- Detailed database of the well analyses, including biostratigraphic analysis, sedimentological examination of cores and geochemical evaluation.
- A series of regional maps showing, sequence by sequence, the distribution of reservoirs, potential
source rocks, seals, hydrocarbon distribution and play fairways.
A sequence stratigraphic approach to such a complex area improves understanding of petroleum systems, links tectonic activity and the generation of sequence boundaries, improves understanding of critical factors in controls on reservoir distribution, facilitates exploration by analogy from area to area and most significantly, reduces exploration risk.
6.7.2
Pakistan Hydrocarbon Evaluation, 1995
A detailed review of the geological provinces, producing potential and undiscovered resources; proven and potential gas fields are detailed in 2 appendices.