Print this pageABSTRACT: The Gorgon Gas Field
L. J. Clegg, M. J. Sayers, A. M. Tait
The Gorgon gas field was discovered by West Australian Petroleum Pty Limited (WAPET) in 1980 with the 1 Gorgon well, and appraised by 1 North Gorgon in 1982 and 1 Central Gorgon in 1983. The gas field is situated on the North West Shelf of Western Australia, 65 km northwest of WAPET's Barrow Island oil field, itself 65 km offshore.
The Gorgon gas field is at the southwestern end of the Rankin Platform, which contains several giant gas fields. Water depth at the Gorgon gas field is around 250 m. The top of the Triassic Mungaroo Formation reservoir sequence is at approximately 3500 m subsea. Individual meander-belt sandstones are up to 50 m thick and occur either interbedded with interchannel claystones or stacked to form sand bodies up to 220 m thick. The Triassic sediments form a tilted horst sealed by Cretaceous Barrow Group shales. Gross gas columns and net gas pays in the 1 Gorgon, 1 Central Gorgon, and 1 North Gorgon wells are 409 and 106 m, 441 and 45 m, and 761 and 136 m, respectively.
The field is 5 km wide and at least 30 km long. Gas reserves are estimated at 232 × 109 m3, of which around 17% is carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The reservoir sandstones have porosities of 15 to 20% and permeabilities from tens to thousands of millidarcys. Individual zones have flowed gas at rates of up to 1.06 million m3/day through a 31.75 mm choke.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91000©1990 AAPG Conference-Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade 1978-1988 Conference, Stavanger, Norway, September 9-12, 1990