Using chemostratigraphy to define unconventional plays in the southern Taroom Trough, Bowen Basin

The southern Taroom Trough, Bowen Basin is highly prospective for a number of established and emerging unconventional hydrocarbon plays, with particular recent interest in Permian-hosted tight gas. One challenge facing exploration in the Taroom Trough is the complex and laterally variable nature of the stratigraphy. To address this, a chemostratigraphic approach utilising inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry–mass spectrometry (ICP-OES-MS) elemental abundance data, previously applied to the western flank, is being extended into four key wells eastward and southward across the basin. To date, new ICP-OES-MS data are available for Fantome-1 and is displayed herein. The Late Permian chemistry has revealed several chemically distinctive events and has permitted the establishment of a new confident regional correlation. Critically, this new regional chemostratigraphic framework provides stratigraphic context for three important emerging plays, the Canyon Project target (‘Canyon Sandstone’), the ‘Dunk Sandstone,’ and the Grandis Project target (‘Lorelle Sandstone’). Ongoing work will extend this chemostratigraphic model across the Taroom Trough.