Petroleum supersystems in the greater McArthur Basin, Northern Territory, Australia: prospectivity of the world’s oldest stacked systems with emphasis on the McArthur Supersystem

Abstract

This study assesses the prospectivity of the world’s oldest known stacked petroleum systems from the Proterozoic greater McArthur Basin (Northern Territory, Australia), which has immense potential to host both conventional natural gas and oil, in addition to shale-gas accumulations. The Mesoproterozoic succession of the Beetaloo Sub-basin and surrounding region hosts the Territory’s premier shale-gas play and is at an advanced stage of exploration for shale hydrocarbon plays. However, there is also potential for natural gas in older sedimentary packages, with flows and shows reported in underlying Paleoproterozoic successions. At the continent-scale, four regional petroleum supersystems are identified and described in order to provide a platform for consistent nomenclature at the sedimentary package and group level; in ascending stratigraphic order; these are the Paleoproterozoic Redbank and McArthur supersystems, the Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic Lawn Supersystem, and the Mesoproterozoic Beetaloo Supersystem. The Redbank and Lawn supersystems are newly named and defined, and the Beetaloo Supersystem is renamed from the former Urapungan Supersystem. Eight possible conventional natural gas plays and six shale-gas plays are documented within the McArthur Supersystem, which incorporates Glyde Package successions of the McArthur Basin and the Birrindudu Basin. Petroleum play concepts are also described from this supersystem to assist with assessing the potential for gas resources. A better understanding of the petroleum systems of the greater McArthur Basin is critical to the targeting of areas for geoscience data acquisition in order to facilitate the reduction of exploration search space; and it enables a more rigorous assessment of the potential for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources at local (play) and regional scales.

Source rocks of the Birrindudu Basin: perspectives from a new sampling program

“…The Birrindudu Basin contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province to the east, but remains comparatively poorly understood due to the lack of data (Korsch 2024). Hydrocarbon exploration in the Birrindudu Basin has been limited, despite the existence of petroleum systems in correlative units within the adjacent McArthur Basin (Jarrett et al 2021). Understanding the petroleum potential of the basin has been hampered by the scarcity of source rock data and, in particular, the lack of organic petrology maturity data (Korsch 2024).…”

Unconventional hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Paleoproterozoic Fraynes Formation in Manbulloo S1, Northern Territory

“…In particular, the Fraynes Formation in the upper Limbunya Group of the Birrrindudu Basin dated as 1642.2 ± 3.9 Ma by U-Pb zircon SHRIMP testing is currently interpreted as a chronostratigraphic equivalent to the prospective Barney Creek Formation of the McArthur Basin (Munson et al 2020). The Barney Creek Formation is the primary source rock for the McArthur Petroleum Supersystem with conventional and unconventional gas discoveries encountered in numerous wells in the Northern Territory (Jarrett et al 2022). The Fraynes Formation may therefore be a source rock of interest to explorers in the Birrindudu Basin.…”

Assessment of Oil and Gas Potential in Vychegda Trough in Connection with the Identification of Potential Petroleum Systems

“…To the north-west of the Yaregskaya area at the Vodniy Promysel field, the drilling of wells from the Upper Riphean shales yielded commercial flows of dry gas (10,000-15,000 m 3 /day) containing 95.80% methane. Abroad, Precambrian accumulations and intensive HC manifestations were recorded in Australia (McArthur [30,31] and Amadeus [32] Basins), China (North China [33,34], Sichuan [35][36][37] and Tirim [38] Basins), Oman (Persian Gulf Basin [39]), India (Bikaner-Nagaur Basin [40]), as well as on the African continent (Taoudeni and Voltaian Basins [41]).…”