The Carnarvon Basin formed during the separation of Greater India and Australia in the Mesozoic. Rifting was associated with the generation of large volumes of melt (possibly related to a hotspot beneath the Cape Range Fracture Zone), which was emplaced into the upper crust of the Exmouth Plateau and Exmouth Sub-basin from the late Jurassic until breakup in the early Cretaceous. Despite the magmatic system spanning 50,000km2 across the Exmouth Plateau and Exmouth Sub-basin, few wells have intersected igneous rocks. Of those that have, we find that the majority of igneous rock penetrations are unintentional. In this contribution, we evaluate the impact of igneous rocks on drilling operations, and petroleum systems, for each well known to have passed through igneous rocks in the Carnarvon Basin.

Open-Access Online Publication: March 03, 2023