Kingfish

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Kingfish oil field, Gippsland Basin

Location: Gippsland Basin, south-eastern
Pull-up: Medium
Top of HRDZ: ~500 ms
Amplitude Anomalies: High
Intensity: Medium
Data Degradation: Low

The giant Kingfish Field in the Gippsland Basin has a prominent HRDZ/gas chimney associated with it (Fig. 23a). The anomaly is located between about 500 and 600 ms, near CDP 3250, and shows amplitude anomalies and pull-up of underling reflectors (Fig. 23b). There is also some sign of pull-up near 300 ms. A column of disrupted seismic data extends from near the sea floor down to about 1,200 ms.

Whilst some of the shallow gas in the Gippsland Basin may be biogenic, large thermogenic hydrocarbon seeps have also been documented in the basin (Heggie et al, 1991a and b). In fact, no biogenic seeps have actually been detected during any of the water column sniffer surveys carried out in the basin (O’Brien, unpublished data). This observation, combined with the fact that the depth of the disrupted data zone is consistent with leakage from the Kingfish accumulation, leads us to favour a thermogenic, leakage-related origin for this anomaly. Similarly, the Kingfish Field does not have a gas cap and the oil is under-saturated with gas, as are the leaky Jabiru and Challis fields in the Timor Sea.

Figure 23. a) An HRDZ and gas chimney above the Kingfish oil of boxed area on Fig. 23a.