Depositional History and Characterisation of Petroleum Reservoirs
Supervisor
Research Affiliations
Degree Type/Name
Pre-requisites
Student Support
Collaboration
A/Prof Annette George
Centre for Petroleum Geoscience
Ph.D, M.Sc, Honours - Geology, Earth Science, Minerals
Geoscience, Petroleum Geoscience
Degree in Geology or other kind Geoscience degree.
A student undertaking an Honours degree is eligible for financial
support provided by the UWA Geoscience Foundation.
These projects are in collaboration with various Perth-based
petroleum companies.
Skills
These projects are aimed at strengthening sedimentological skills particularly facies analysis
and environmental interpretation, development of depositional and paleogeographic models
and the integration of sedimentological data with other data sets such as wireline log, seismic
and biostratigraphic. Skills gained are highly relevant to petroleum exploration but may also
be transferred to basin-hosted mineral deposits and groundwater.
Project Description
A wide variety of Palaeozoic-Mesozoic petroleum reservoirs
are encountered in the offshore basins of the North West
Shelf and various onshore basins in WA (Fig.1). Petroleumfocused projects can be undertaken in siliciclastic or
carbonate reservoirs, in shallow or deep marine depositional
systems, and typically focus on reconstructing the
depositional and tectonic history in specific basins or
through specific stratigraphic units (notably reservoirs).
These projects typically involve integration of core work
(sedimentology, petrography, sequence stratigraphy ±
biostratigraphy) with seismic, wireline log and/or log image
data. Field-based studies are possible depending on
availability of suitable outcrop in particular basins. The type
of project depends on student preference and company
interests; examination of deep water depositional systems is
particularly important given expanding exploration in these
systems in Australia and overseas. In addition, projects
which focus on examination of reservoir quality using core
data and cement studies (e.g. diagenetic history), and
provenance are also possible.
Fig. 1 Reservoir facies of the
delta
plain
(Early
Cretaceous Barrow Group),
Barrow Sub-basin, Northern
Carnarvon Basin, North
West Shelf
Recommended Reading
Longley et al., 2002. The North West Shelf of Australia - a Woodside perspective.
Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium 3, Perth, October, 27-88.