Australian National Hydrocarbon Geochemistry Data Collection

Geoscience Australia's Oracle organic geochemical database comprises analytical results for samples relevant to petroleum exploration, including source rocks, crude oils and natural gases from both onshore and offshore basins. The data is non-confidential and available to the petroleum industry, research organisations and the public. The data are produced by a wide range of destructive analytical techniques conducted on samples submitted by industry under legislative requirements, as well as on samples collected by research projects undertaken by Geoscience Australia or other government agencies or institutions. Some of the results have been generated by Geoscience Australia's laboratory, whereas other data is compiled from service company reports, well completions reports and published papers.

Value: These data comprise the raw organic geochemistry values generated for Australian source rocks, crude oil and natural gases and is the only public comprehensive database at the national scale. The raw data are used as input to other studies, such as petroleum systems modelling, resource assessments and national mapping projects. Derived datasets and value-add products are created based on calculated values and interpretation to provide information on the subsurface petroleum prospectivity of the Australian continent. The data collection aspires to build a national-scale understanding of Australia's oil and gas resources.

Scope: This data collection is useful to government for evidence-based decision making on natural energy resources and the petroleum industry for de-risking conventional and unconventional exploration programs. Results for many of the oil and gas samples held in the Australian National Offshore Wells Data Collection are included in this database.