BUREAU OF MINERAL RESOURCES, GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS REPORT 256 BMR MICROFORM MF202 DATA FILE AUSTCO : WELLS DRILLED FOR PETROLEUM IN AUSTRALIA (TO JANUARY 1984) Compiled by D.J. Forman, A.L. Hinde, & J. Totterdell AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING SERVICE CANBERRA 1984 DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCES AND ENERGY Minister: Senator the Hon. Peter Walsh Secretary: A.J. Woods BUREAU OF MINERAL RESOURCES, GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS Director: R.W.R. Rutland Published for the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics by the Australian Government Publishing Service ©Commonwealth of Australia 1984 ISSN 0084-7100 ISBN 0 644 03494 7 ABSTRACT Data from about 3200 petroleum exploration and development wells drilled in Australia from the early 1900s are made available in this report. The wells are located by latitude and longitude, State or Territory, basin, sub-basin or infrabasin, and by position onshore or offshore. Other information provided includes operator, classification, total depth, date well reached total depth, and whether oil, gas, or oil and gas were discovered. These preliminary data are published because they are needed by private companies and government and because they are background information to research results that are in preparation. The sources of the data are also listed. CONTENTS Introduction Data included in the file Sources of data Location of wells Company names and abbreviations Classification of wells Acknowledgements References Listing of the data base INTRODUCTION AUSTCO is a computer-based data storage and retrieval system that contains the well data needed for a study of wells and well depths drilled in Australia and for calculation of success rates. Data items are well name and number; latitude and longitude; State or Territory; onshore or offshore; basin; sub-basin or infrabasin; operator; classification; total depth; date well reached total depth; and whether oil, gas, or oil and gas were discovered. Together with data on the size of the oil and gas fields discovered, contained in a confidential section of the file, it can be used to graph discovery rates, to prepare graphs of cumulative field size plotted against number of discoveries, and to prepare estimates of undiscovered petroleum resources by the methods outlined by Meisner & Demirmen (1981) and Forman & Hinde (in prep.). The data are regarded as preliminary, pending completion at BMR of PEDIN, a comprehensive computerised well data system. The AUSTCO printout is published because of a need by private companies for this type of data and as background information to research results that are being prepared for publication (Forman & Hinde, in prep.). Instructions for using the data base are contained in Hinde (1984 a,b). ACKNOWLE DGEMENTS E. Nicho1as, J.M. Henry, G.C. Mortimer, N.F. Carugno, and W. Hess1er gave valuable assistance in locating the data. Speed of compilation was considerably enhanced by computer processing of magnetic tapes kindly supplied by Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd and the Geological Survey of Queensland. REFERENCES AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE, 1976 - Standard definitions for petroleum statistics. Technical Report No. 1. 2nd Ed. American Petroleum Institute, Washington. FORMAN, D.J. & HINDE, A.L., (in prep. - A model of oil and gas discovery and an improved statistical method for assessment of undiscovered resources. HINDE, A.L., 1984a - LAMDA: A computer program for estimating hypothetical petroleum resources using the creaming method. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Record 1984/4. HINDE, A.L., 1984b - The AUSTCO database system: user's manual. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Record 1984/5. JOHNSTON, R.R., 1976 - North American drilling activity in 1975. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 60(8), 1188. MEISNER, J., & DEMIRMEN, F., 1981 - The creaming method: a Bayesian procedure to forecast future oil and gas discoveries in mature exploration provinces. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. A, 144(1), 1-31.