The past year has witnessed a breakthrough in Australian oil and gas exploration with 8 new discoveries scattered over a wide geographical area, and adding Northern Territory, South Australia, and Western Australia to the discovery list. However, the commercial potential of most of these discoveries has yet to be established.

Queensland continued active, with the most important developments being Union and Kern County Land Company's Alton discovery in the Surat basin and Phillips' deep gas discovery in Devonian strata at Gilmore. Several small, questionably commercial gas fields were found in the Surat basin and in the Bowen basin. The first Drummond basin well found oil "shows" in the Lower Permian. The Roma gas field can now supply about one-third of Brisbane's requirements.

Exoil's Mereenie field in the Amadeus basin, Northern Territory, now has 4 large gas wells producing from the Ordovician. The field has a proved length of 17 miles. Two outer wells indicate 300 feet of oil column in a tight sandstone. Reserves are indicated to be 1 trillion cubic feet.

Delhi's Gidgealpa field in South Australia has five large gas wells producing from the Permian in a 30-sq.-mi. area, with estimated reserves of 450 billion cubic feet. Another field of this size will be necessary to justify a pipeline to Adelaide.

In the Perth basin, Western Australia, Wapet's Yardarino field has two large oil and gas wells in Permian strata and two dry holes in a small fault-block trap. Wapet's Barrow Island discovery, the first success in the Exmouth Gulf since the Rough Range disappointment in 1953, has three 180-900 B/D flowing wells from thin multiple zone Cretaceous-Jurassic sandstones.

Other interesting developments include oil "shows" in two Cretaceous sandstones in the Port Campbell area, State of Victoria, oil "shows" in Cambrian dolomite and gas "shows" in Precambrian limestone in the Alice Springs area of the Amadeus basin, and "shows" in the Cambrian at Sandover in the Georgina basin. A gas "show" in Devonian was logged in the Bonaparte basin of Northwest Australia.

The year 1965 should have considerable exploration in the basins where production has been indicated, and new ventures in untested basins, including the Bass Strait where Esso is now drilling, and several other offshore areas.

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