[Crazy_Dad]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/mp ... e-growing/

OIL/GORGON/ is bad for humans.

[copious.abundance]

Looks like things might start happening here soon.

>>> LINK <<<

THREE significant new oil and gas regions have been identified off Australia's coast, raising the potential for a wave of offshore exploration that could create booming new resources hubs around the nation.

A combination of new technology and the high price of oil has prompted the commonwealth's Geoscience Australia survey body to push technical limits and explore frontier areas in deep water, turning up startling new resource potential.

One of the regions, the South Australian end of the Great Australian Bight, has been opened for exploration and has already attracted strong bids ahead of the April 29 deadline.

But extracting any oil and gas from this area will mean overcoming significant challenges, including heavy seas and wells deeper than any in operation around the nation.

In addition to the Bight, Geoscience Australia has uncovered strong indications of petroleum in basins near the Lord Howe Rise, 800km east of Brisbane, and on the Wallaby Plateau, 500km off the West Australian coast and next to the existing North West Shelf gas zone.

[...]

[sparky]

.
The north West shelf is a well known province and the shelf is shallow
the great bight turn very deep fast enough , so far there hasn't been any inkling of it being suitable
there is some possible formations on the Eastern seaboard that's complicated by politics
there was some attempt by BHP to do sonics survey , it created a storm
the present government rely heavily on Greens preferences
an area which could be further investigated is the area south of Bass strait , there are some Jurassic formations worth poking a drill head into

an challenging prospect is the application of shale gas to Australia ,
water might be an issue
but it doesn't have to be drinking grade water , brackish could be suitable

.

[jesterx]

When My Dad divorced Mum he moved back to his families farm up on charters towers...not sure where.

anyway, I know that as a little boy he use to tell me great stories of big gold nuggets up near the basalt walls. Was intresting that alot of this land is just property but they suspect the basalt is prime for gold silver and other minerals but the land is not as stable as they think. When I called him about a month ago there was a big company allegedly intresting in a big block of land up there.

This place is so barren and so undiscovered there would have to be a gold nugget the size of a house (as my old man use to say) up there some where.

[jesterx]

When My Dad divorced Mum he moved back to his families farm up on charters towers...not sure where.

anyway, I know that as a little boy he use to tell me great stories of big gold nuggets up near the basalt walls. Was intresting that alot of this land is just property but they suspect the basalt is prime for gold silver and other minerals but the land is not as stable as they think. When I called him about a month ago there was a big company allegedly intresting in a big block of land up there.

This place is so barren and so undiscovered there would have to be a gold nugget the size of a house (as my old man use to say) up there some where.

[jesterx]

Australia? How random, but good for them. How is the snow and winter going on there?

i live in australia and we are coming into winter, and I am in just short with the fan on full blast watching TV. insane weather lately.

2012 is the end of us surely....LOL

[SeaGypsy]

Beetaloo Basin is going ahead already. I have a friend working there. So far they are running a team of 30/ 40 at the exploration stage. The N.T. Government is trying to fast track a new LNG plant at Darwin to expedite exports.

[copious.abundance]

Not sure if this is the McArthur basin one I was talking about before, or if it's another, adjacent, one. But regardless, here's some info. Someone estimated ~9 billion barrels of recoverable oil in this thing:
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/docum ... ennett.pdf

[SeaGypsy]

That things stands a snowflake's chance in hell. Shale oil is on a par with nuclear energy in Australia, massively unpopular. The site will be checked, pegged out and locked up. That's about it unless something drastic happens to change the political envronment. It would make a lot more sense for Australia to get over it's neurosis about nuclear energy and move away from oil dependence. Shale oil is rightly viewed as a bad option for reasons of efficiency and AGW.

[copious.abundance]

It appears there are still plenty of unexplored and under-explored basins in the world, including in Australia. Based on a couple things I've read before, the leases they're about to open up in the Great Australian Bight sound particularly interesting.

>>> LINK <<<
[...]

They awarded the first leases in the Great Australian Bight, and the winners are . . .

LINK

BP Wins Four Crude Oil Exploration Permits Off Southern Australian Coast
By James Paton - Jan 16, 2011 9:53 PM PT

BP Plc received four permits to explore for oil off southern Australia less than a year after the company’s Gulf of Mexico spill, the worst in U.S. history.

London-based BP was awarded the permits after “extensive assessment and due diligence” of the company’s ability to carry out exploration under “stringent” environmental and safety standards, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said in a statement in Canberra today. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second- largest oil and gas producer, Riverina Energy Pty and Finder No. 4 Pty got one permit each off Western Australia.

[...]

[SeaGypsy]

There is nothing unusual about 40 to 60 foot waves in the Great Australian Bight. There is virtually no infrastructure on this part of the continent, not even a track along the coast. Also the continental shelf drops away closer to shore here than anywhere in Australian waters. Then there is the north-south flowing aquifer known as the Great Artesian Basin, which runs through limestone at great depths across most of the Bight. I doubt if any more challenging project has ever been undertaken anywhere. This area makes the Gulf of Mexico look like a fish pond.

[copious.abundance]

Some nifty information on the Beetalo basin oil. Of particular interest is that this could be the oldest oil in the world!
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/docum ... verman.pdf

[Xenophobe]

Some nifty information on the Beetalo basin oil. Of particular interest is that this could be the oldest oil in the world!
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/docum ... verman.pdf

Just imagine what's going to happen in peakerland when someone starts adding up all the unconventional oil and gas around the world and saying "gee! lookee here!".

Abundance! What a concept!

[SeaGypsy]

Be sure and let us know when you guys have convinced the Australian public this stuff is oil.
As I have said before on this thread and no Australian will argue, oil sands/ shale etc. are definitely no sellers for the time being and the considerable future. Anyone considering this as more than a penny stock has rocks in their head, not just their gas tank. Neither side of our duopolist government is about to try this and under current laws it can't be done.

[copious.abundance]

SeaGypsy, you already told us on the previous page this is going ahead. Not sure what your objection is.

Beetaloo Basin is going ahead already. I have a friend working there. So far they are running a team of 30/ 40 at the exploration stage. The N.T. Government is trying to fast track a new LNG plant at Darwin to expedite exports.

[rockdoc123]

Be sure and let us know when you guys have convinced the Australian public this stuff is oil.
As I have said before on this thread and no Australian will argue, oil sands/ shale etc. are definitely no sellers for the time being and the considerable future. Anyone considering this as more than a penny stock has rocks in their head, not just their gas tank. Neither side of our duopolist government is about to try this and under current laws it can't be done.

My understanding is the Beetaloo basin "shale oil" is not what you imagine it to be. The term "shale oil" was used in the past to describe mineable kerogens (eg. Morocco), the technology of which is sketchy and largely unproven in an large scale economic venture. The press and other pundits have used "shale oil" more recently to describe liquid from shales. This is not much dissimilar to the Bakken or parts of the Eagleford and likely encompasses everything from actually volatile oil through condensate. The Beetaloo is the more of the condensate side of things in my view but of course it remains to be seen. As to whether the Aus gov't will allow it....they already have implicitedly by awarding petroleum rights to Falcon who are actively exploring. The techniques for unconventional oil in shales is pretty much the same as gas.....large multistage fracs in horizontal wells. Various companies are already employing this technology in the Cooper Eromanga basin looking for gas.

[SeaGypsy]

Roc, I always respect your opinion, but you need to know more about Australian politics when it comes to mining. There have been many cases of viable finds costing millions to explore ending up shelved by political forces. Believe it or not, most Australians do believe in climate change and are aware of the inefficiencies of extractions equating to accellerated AGW. The green lobby is one issue, then there is the fact that ALL substantial finds are on Aboriginal Land claim areas. It is easy to get an exploration permit, but when it comes to resolving legalities with multiple claimants, conflicting claims, local and State governments, mandatory Heads of Agreement meetings etc. we are talking about at least a decade before anything like this project gets off the ground.

In the same decade Australia could re-educate itself about wise use of it's vast uranium reserves; that might be a much more intelligent focus than appalling EREOI projects such as this.

[rockdoc123]

Roc, I always respect your opinion, but you need to know more about Australian politics when it comes to mining. There have been many cases of viable finds costing millions to explore ending up shelved by political forces. Believe it or not, most Australians do believe in climate change and are aware of the inefficiencies of extractions equating to accellerated AGW. The green lobby is one issue, then there is the fact that ALL substantial finds are on Aboriginal Land claim areas. It is easy to get an exploration permit, but when it comes to resolving legalities with multiple claimants, conflicting claims, local and State governments, mandatory Heads of Agreement meetings etc. we are talking about at least a decade before anything like this project gets off the ground.

I hear you SeaGypsy and bow to your local knowledge on such things. I'm not unfamiliar with Aus oil and gas industry but most of my experience has been in the offshore NW shelf. That being said not that long ago I did have a look at the Beetaloo. I'm certainly not an expert in above ground issues in Aus but I do know the CSM industry has been going great guns in the Cooper Eromanga and that involves lots of closely spaced wells and lots of water production (above ground has a large footprint). There is also a nacient shale gas industry taking off in that same area....the idea being that this gas would go either to local power demands or to the LNG projects ongoing at the coast. There is also a bit of a shale gas industry starting to kick off in and around Perth..in fact an acquaintance of mine who has a winery down there is looking forward to a more stable power source. Of course this is all gas but from an above ground perspective it pretty much looks the same as all the liquids are contained. Outside of there being a strong cry against the notion of fracing horrors (usually that comes from highly populated centres such as New York state, Quebec lowlands etc) and the native claims you point to I'm not sure what would get in the way of activity as similar activity is already ongoing. But again politics are a wildcard pretty much everywhere.

[SeaGypsy]

Cooper Eromanga is a classic example:

In the Queensland portion of the basin, under the dictatorial premier Joh Bjelke Petersen, development began in 1981:

http://svc115.wic512d.server-web.com/zo ... as_s_1.pdf

While the South Australian portion is the much larger, it took until 2009 to reach agreement among the HOG: Mining Companies/ State and Local governments/ Aboriginal claimants/ environmental impact assesors and finally federal investment authorities. That is effectively a quarter century lag. When I said a decade, I was being conservative.

Here is the document covering the SA portion:

http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/ ... 09_web.pdf

It is also worth keeping in mind that this is one of the least populated places in the Australian desert, the Beetaloo area is much more conflicted with activist groups and contrasting language group aboriginals, unlike Cooper Basin where all tribes are in the same kin/ language family.

Seriously it's a penny stock.

The NT is wracked with politics. It also has more gas online already than it knows what to do with, of the kind which doesn't require fracking. Besides all that there is the fact of the north/south flow of the great artesian and the potential the poison the whole thing, this would destroy virtually all agriculture in the central half of the country and most of the towns. It is estimated to take 2000 years for water to flter through the 1800 miles of limestone aquifer, but it is all connected so to be responsible would not allow any poisoning processes such as fracking.