| Petroleum Systems | |
|---|---|
| Oil Families | Proven Austral Petroleum Supersystem. Late Cretaceous to Eocene Austral 3 oil population. Three main oil families recognised related to stratigraphic position and in-reservoir alteration. Proven Latrobe- Latrobe system. Also minor contributions from a marine source rock interpreted for some oils. |
| Source | Carbonaceous shales and coals of the Upper Cretaceous to Early Tertiary Latrobe group and similar lower coastal plain facies in the Golden Beach and Emperor Subgroups. |
| Reservoir | Top Latrobe ("coarse clastics") and intra-Latrobe sands (Latrobe Siliciclastics), sands in the underlying Golden Beach Subgroup and in the Gurnard Formation channel fill sands unconformably overlying the Latrobe Group. |
| Seal | The Seaspray Group forms the regional seal. The reservoirs of the Golden Beach Subgroup are partly sealed by younger volcanics and partly by up-thrown older lacustrine shales of the Emperor Subgroup. |
| Traps | Anticlines, fault closures, erosional remnants, Top Latrobe subcrops. |
| Generation and Timing | Main phase of hydrocarbon expulsion in the Neogene, with earlier phase in the Latest Cretaceous/Palaeocene. Trap formation from Cenomanian through to Neogene. |
A network of pipelines brings produced hydrocarbons to the onshore petroleum processing facilities near Longford. A 457mm (18 inch) gas pipeline from these facilities delivers Gippsland gas along the eastern seaboard of Australia to Sydney in New South Wales. New gas pipelines are being constructed from the Bream Field to Longford, from Longford to Tasmania and from the Patricia-Baleen field to Orbost. Increasing gas market demand in the SE Australian region together with deregulation and reform of the upstream and downstream gas industry during recent years has also provided the impetus for renewed exploration activities. This has resulted in an increase in exploration activities in the Gippsland basin with an additional discovery at East Pilchard, south of the Kipper Field.