Resource Cost Analysis of Continuous-Type Resources in the Cooper Basin, Australia

Abstract

In addition to the well known conventional gas and oil accumulations of South Australia and Queensland, continuous-type (unconventional) accumulations in the Cooper basin may be poised to become the (high-cost) marginal sources of supply, which control commodity prices in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Investigations by South Australia Department of State Development and Geoscience Australia have persuasively demonstrated geological evidence consistent with the presence of large in-place volumes of undiscovered and undeveloped continuous-type oil and gas resources in unconventional reservoirs: shales, coal seams, and in basin-centered low-permeability sandstone reservoirs. However, as of now, the volumes of in-place resources, their technical recoverability, and the costs that might be associated with their development remain unspecified and highly uncertain. Geological indications are that these resources occur across a wide variety of settings and that their recoverability and costs will vary greatly from resource to resource and from place to place. In our study, we develop a strategy for making consistent and comprehensive geologically-grounded probabilistic estimates of the in-place hydrocarbon volumes in the Cooper basin, coupled with assessments of the uncertainty associated with their technically recoverability. On the basis of the technical requirements of resource development, the joint probability of technical recoverability and likely well-head costs can be combined in resource cost functions, allowing a direct comparison with both conventional and unconventional resources in other basins.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90217 © 2015 International Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, September 13-16, 2015