Cooper basin

The geographical distribution of Australia s coal resources is shown in Fig. 1. New South Wales and Queensland possess large reserves of black coals in the Sydney and Bowen Basins, respectively, adjacent to the eastern seaboard. Significant deposits of bituminous coals are also known to occur in remote areas in South Australia at Lake Phillipson in the Arckaringa Basin and at currently inaccessible depth (200-300 m) in the Cooper Basin (3,4). 

Whereas the majority of the black coals in the northern hemisphere, including the USA and Europe, were formed during the Carboniferous age, the black coals of Australia are, in the main, Permian. The latter include the coals from the two major basins -the Sydney and the Bowen - and also large deposits in the Galilee Basin (Queensland), at Oaklands (N.S.W.), Lake Phillipson (South Australia) and Collie (West Australia) as well as the deep coal in the Cooper Basin (the Cooper Basin is in the N.E. corner of South Australia extending into the S.W. corner of Queensland (refer Fig. 1)). 

Devine, S.B., 1977. Soil hydrocarbon geochemistry, a potential petroleum exploration tool in the Cooper Basin, Australia. J. Geochem. Explor., 8 397-414. 

Devine, S.B. and Sears, H.W., 1985. An experiment in soil geochemical prospecting for petroleum, Della Gas Field, Cooper Basin. Australian Pet. Explor. Assoc. J., 15 103-110. 

Goulbum, 424 Northern Territory, 324 Amadeus Basin, 239 Cooper Basin, 178 Koongarra, 319, 330, 335, 338, 351... 

Figure 13 shows an Australian example of industrial ecology. Sulfur dioxide is emitted from the metallurgical smelting of sulfide minerals at Mt. Isa in a remote area of Queensland. For many years, large quantities of SO2 had been emitted to the atmosphere. The development of phosphate rock mining at Phosphate Hill some 150 km away provided an opportunity to capture SO2 and convert it to sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid could be used to digest the phosphate rock to make phosphoric acid. Ammonia manufacture from natural gas was possible, since natural gas from the Cooper Basin held in central... 

Cooper basin sediments consist of glaciofluvial, fluvio-lacustrine and deltaic elastics (Fig. 2) (Bat-tersby, 1976 Thornton, 1979). The Jurassic section of the Eromanga basin sequence was deposited in an intercratonic basin sag, and is made up of non-marine elastics deposited under fluvial, deltaic and lacustrine conditions. The Early Cretaceous Murta Member to Cadna-Owie Formation (Fig. 2) show deposition changing from lacustrine to marine, with marine conditions prevailing from the Aptian until the Upper Albian, when a return to paralic and fluvio-lacustrine conditions is indicated (Senior et al., 1978 Armstrong Barr, 1986). 

Table 1. Examples of major carbonate-cemented zones as identified from sonic and bulk density logs and lithological descriptions of cuttings for a variety of structures in dilferent parts of the Eromanga basin (Fig. lA). Note that the carbonate-cemented zones in Jurassic sandstones vary in cumulative thickness, from a few metres (e.g. Strzelecki-10) to about 110 m (Spencer West-1), including over short distances (e.g. Strzelecki). All wells occur near the Cooper basin margin, or along major fault-bounded structural trends where the regional Nappamerri Group seal (Triassic) underlying the Jurassic sandstones is incompetent or missing...

Fig. 8. Histogram of 5 C frequency distribution for (a) calcite cement in the Lower Namur Sandstone of the Gidgealpa Field (b) calcite cement in the Namur Sandstone and the Adori Sandstone, its lateral equivalent, for different petroleum fields, including the Big Lake, Kema, Marana, Moomba, Spencer, Strzelecki, Tantanna and Warana Fields (see Fig. 1 A) (c) siderite cement in Jurassic elastics (d) Cooper basin CO2 gases (e) Eromanga basin CO2 gases. Compiled from various sources (as shown). Note that the 5 C character of Eromanga basin calcite cements is similar to that of Cooper basin carbon dioxide gases. See text for explanation.

Apak, S.N., Stuart, W.J. Lemon, N.L. (1993) Structural-stratigraphic development of the Gidgealpa-Merrimelia-Innamincka Trend with implications fc petroleum trap styles. Cooper Basin, Australia. Aust. 

Gilby, A.R. Mortimore, l.R. (1989) The prospects for Eromanga oil accumulations in the northern Cooper Basin region, Australia. In The Cooper and Eromanga Basins, Australia (Ed. O Neil, B.J.), pp. 391-403. Proc. Petroleum Exploration Soc. Australia, Soc. Petroleum Engineers, Australian Soc. Exploration Geophysicists (S.A. Branches), Adelaide. 

Rigby, D. Smith, J.W. (1981) An isotopic study of gases and hydrocarbons in the Cooper Basin. Aust. Petrol. 

Stuart, W.J. (1976) The genesis of Permian and Lower Triassic reservoir sandstones during phases of southern Cooper Basin development. Aitst. Petrol. Explor. Ass. J., 16, 37-47. 

Thornton, R.C.N. (1979) Regional stratigraphic analysis of the Gidgealpa Group, southern Cooper Basin, Australia. Geol. Surv. Aust. Bull., 49, 1-140. 

The Permo-Triassic Cooper basin of central Australia (Fig. 1) is Australia s largest onshore hydrocarbon province, containing about 6 TCF of recoverable gas and 300 MMSTB of oil and gas liquids (Heath, 1989 Laws, 1989). The basin consists dominantly of lacustrine-fluvial deposits with local glaciofluvial and rare paraglacial aeolian sediments (see Kapel, 1966, 1972 Gatehouse, 1972 ... 

Fig. 1. Map of the southern Cooper basin showing major structural elements and the location of the Moorari and Fly Lake Fields in the Patchawarra syncline. Cooper basin. Modified from Stuart et al (1988).

Fig. 2. Stratigraphic column for the southern Cooper basin and main tectonic events. The fluvio-deltaic Tirrawarra Sandstone was deposited during the early subsidence history of the Cooper basin when Australia was at high southern latitudes. Modified from Apak et al. (1993), Apak (1994) and Seggie et al. (1994).

The 5 C character of SI is consistent with a major source of carbon involving methanogenesis (Curtis Coleman, 1986). Although a marine source of carbon (-2 to +2%o Hudson, 1977) could also theoretically explain the observed 5 C composition of SI, this explanation is inconsistent with the fluvio-lacustrine nature of the Cooper basin sediments. Locally, marine Warburton basin lime-... 

Fig. 17. Generalized paragenetic sequence for the Tirrawarra Sandstone in the Fly Lake-Moorari area. Cooper basin. The interpretation is based on the integration of petrographic, isotope and fluid inclusions results. The estimated timing of oil generation and migration is indicated (shaded zone). S1, early generation of siderite cement S2, middle generation of siderite cement S3, late generation of siderite cement D1 and D2, first and second phases of siderite dissolution, respectively.

Apak, S.N. (1994) Structural development and control on stratigraphy and sedimentation in the Cooper Basin Australia. PhD thesis. University of Adelaide, 105 pp. 

Battersby, D.G. (1976) Cooper Basin oil and gas fields. In Economic Geology of Australia and New Guinea. 3 (Eds Leslie, R.B., Evans, H.J. Knight, C.L.), Petrol. Australasia Inst. Mineral. Metal., 7, 321-370. 

---