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Evaluation of the undiscovered hydrocarbon resources of the Bowen and Surat Basins, southern Queensland

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Undiscovered hydrocarbon resources of the Bowen and Surat Basins in southern Queensland have been evaluated, on the basis of data compiled by the NGMA project Sedimentary Basins of Eastern Australia, including regional-scale seismic horizon and isopach maps and an extensive geochemical database of petroleum and potential source-rock samples. Estimates of the yields of hydrocarbons, calculated using the geochemical material balance method, are of very significant magnitude for both oil and gas. Although six principal source-rock intervals are recognised, over two-thirds of the oil is sourced from the Late Permian Baralaba interval. For gas, the Permian Buffel-Banana source unit contributes 31.5%, a significantly greater proportion than its oil counterpart, although, again, the Baralaba source unit is the most prodigious interval, yielding 40% of the total gas. A break-down of the yield in terms of major periods reveals that the Cretaceous to present-day window is by far the most important for both oil and gas generation, with 94.6% and 91.4 % of the respective totals. Thus, late structuring is more important for trap integrity than earlier structuring. By demonstrating that large quantities of hydrocarbons are potentially available for entrapment, the yield analysis should act as a stimulus to exploration initiatives, particularly in the search for stratigraphic traps.

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Field Value
Title Evaluation of the undiscovered hydrocarbon resources of the Bowen and Surat Basins, southern Queensland
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cecf794e-64b2-4e40-9da3-e198173c4dff
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Evaluation of the undiscovered hydrocarbon resources of the Bowen and Surat Basins, southern Queensland". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/evaluation-of-the-undiscovered-hydrocarbon-resources-of-the-bowen-and-surat-basins-southern-que