Abstract

Tectonically, eastern Indonesia occupies a position in the extreme northwest corner of the Australian craton. To the south, the remainder of the craton is composed of the Australian continent and its adjacent shelf areas.

The geology of the margins of the Australian continent is dominated by the scars of extensional tectonics. Specifically, along its northwestern edge, two episodes of extensional tectonics, an Early Paleozoic intracratonic rift event and a Late Paleozoic to Cenozoic rift-drift event, created rift-graben systems which are the sites of concentrated hydrocarbon exploration efforts.

Structural and stratigraphic evidence indicates that the effects of these extensional events extend into eastern Indonesia. As such, the Pre-Tertiary geology of eastern Indonesia should also be dominated by extensional tectonics and a Pre-Tertiary tectonic model, based on knowledge of the effects and trends of those extensional episodes to the south, could help to predict the location of Pre-Tertiary basins underlying eastern Indonesia.

Within the Pre-Tertiary extensional basins of eastern Indonesia, dramatically thickened stratigraphic sections probably containing organic rich source rocks were deposited and nummerous stratigraphic and structural traps developed. Also pre-existing rift grabens likely greatly determined the location, development. and potential of the productive Cenozoic basins of eastern Indonesia.