THE Great Australian Bight off the Goldfields region of WA could become the next hydrocarbon province.
This follows the recent completion of an extensive seismic survey conducted aboard the vessel MV Sea Challenger by GHD-Gardline, a joint venture comprising GHD Surveys Pty Ltd and UK-based Gardline Surveys Limited.
The survey acquired 8,500 line kilometres of two-dimensional seismic data covering a 160,000-square kilometre pros-pecting area, which will be invaluable to energy exploration companies.
The work was done in conjunction with Seismic Australia and commissioned by the Australian Geological Survey Org-anisation (AGSO), a Fed-eral Government agency encouraging exploration of the area. The AGSO provided pre-funding to offset data acquisition and management costs.
The aim of the data is to improve knowledge of the geological setting of potential hydrocarbon resources in the Bight. It has been acquired as two separate grids with different acquisition parameters suited to the underlying geology.
GHD-Gardline Surveys, Seismic Australia and Robertson Research are project partners engaged in speculative exploration surveys around the Australian coast.
The surveys are in areas to be gazetted by the Government and the data marketed by Seis-mic Australia to energy companies interested in bidding for permits.
