A regional hydrocarbon prospectivity study was undertaken in the onshore Canning Basin in Western Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, an Australian Government initiative dedicated to driving investment in resource exploration. As part of this program, significant work has been carried out to deliver new pre-competitive data including new seismic acquisition, drilling of a stratigraphic well, and the geochemical analysis of geological samples recovered from exploration wells.
A regional, 872 km long 2D seismic line (18GA-KB1) acquired in 2018 by Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), images the Kidson Sub-basin of the Canning Basin. In order to provide a test of geological interpretations made from the Kidson seismic survey, a deep stratigraphic well, Barnicarndy 1, was drilled in 2019 in a partnership between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) in the Barnicarndy Graben, 67 km west of Telfer, in the southwest Canning Basin.
Drilling recovered about 2100 m of continuous core from 580 mRT to the driller’s total depth (TD) of 2680.53 mRT. An extensive analytical program was carried out to characterise the lithology, age and depositional environment of these sediments. Geoscience Australia commissioned a fluid inclusion stratigraphy (FIS) study in 2020 on downhole samples in Barnicarndy 1. Here, volatile components ostensibly trapped with fluid inclusions are released and analysed revealing the level of exposure of the well section to migrating fluids. FIS analysis was performed on a total of 24 cuttings and 156 cores between 240 metres and 2679.1 metres base depth (Grant Group to Yeneena Basin Basement). The results of the study are found in the accompanying documents and can also be accessed through the Western Australian Petroleum and Geothermal Information Management System (WAPIMS) platform (https://wapims.dmp.wa.gov.au/WAPIMS/Search/Wells).
