The Cooper Basin is a Permian-Triassic

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

ary geological basin in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The intracratonic

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...

basin is located mainly in the southwestern part of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and extends into northeastern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. It is named after the Cooper Creek which is an ephemeral river that runs into

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in the east-central part of the Far North (South Australia), Far North region of South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. It is the larg ...

. For most of its extent, it is overlain by the Eromanga Basin. It covers 130,000 km². The surface of the Cooper Basin is mostly desert, including parts of the

Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Deserts of Australia, Australian desert, with an area of . The Wangka ...

, the Channel Country and

Sturt Stony Desert Sturt Stony Desert (previously Sturt's Stony Desert) is an area in the north-east of South Australia, far south western border area of Queensland and the far west of New South Wales. It was named by Charles Sturt in 1844, while he was trying ...

. Oil and gas exploration of the basin began in 1962.

Energy resources

Oil and natural gas

The Cooper Basin has the most important on-shore

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

deposits in

. The oil and gas window is located 1,250 m below the surface and was originally discovered in the 1960s (although there are larger oil and gas deposits off-shore). The first commercial discovery of gas occurred in 1963. It includes Australia's largest onshore

oil field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the prese ...

, the Jackson oil field. This field was discovered in 1981. Pipelines transport gas to the major markets of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. Overall about 1,800 petroleum wells have been drilled. The largest producer in the basin is

Santos Limited Santos Ltd. (South Australia and Northern Territory Oil Search) is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, with its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. It owns liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas, and oil asse ...

with its main production facility at

Moomba, South Australia Moomba is a restricted access company town located in the Australian state of South Australia within the gazetted locality of Gidgealpa about north of the state capital of Adelaide. It is operated by Santos Limited for the purpose of explor ...

at the head of the

Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System The Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System is a natural gas pipeline delivering gas from the Cooper Basin gas wells near Moomba, South Australia, Moomba to Adelaide, with spur pipelines to Angaston, South Australia, Angaston and Whyalla. It can also re ...

. The oil and gas deposits in the Cooper Basin tend to be fairly small and fragmentary, but highly economical given the relatively low cost of drilling and completion. Overall there are 160 gas fields and 75

s in production containing about 630 producing gas wells and more than 340 producing oil wells. There are many small listed companies exploring for additional deposits in the region. Some of these companies are Austin Exploration Limited, Cooper Energy, Beach Petroleum Limited, Senex Energy, Bridgeport Energy, Strike Energy, Bengal Energy, Acer Energy, Magellan, Impress Energy, Red Sky Energy, and many others.

Geothermal

Within the basin, exploration companies have conducted extensive research to discover if the area is appropriate for large-scale production. They have drilled and measured the temperature in many holes, estimating that hot granite rocks at 3.5 km deep are 240 °C. The Cooper Basin has been selected for the site of a geothermal project, because these rocks are the hottest in the world at economic drilling depths and away from volcanoes. During reservoir stimulation in 2003, induced seismic events up to magnitude 3.7 were observed.

Impact crater

The Basin hides an

impact crater An impact crater is a depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...

created "around 300 million years ago." Its discovery by scientist Tonguç Uysal was revealed in October 2010. The crater's "minimum diameter is 80 km", making it one of the largest of Australia's 30 to 50 known or suspected craters.

References

{{reflist Geology of South Australia Geology of Queensland Oil fields of Australia Sedimentary basins of Australia South West Queensland Energy in South Australia Energy in Queensland

Energy resources

Oil and natural gas

Geothermal

Impact crater

See also

References