News
Wellington Gold Award for PEGI project.
The innovative information web portal that helps oil exploration companies in their search for oil and gas in New Zealand has won GNS Science the Discovering Gold category in the 2012 Wellington Gold Awards.
The award was for the Petroleum Exploration Geoscience Initiative (PEGI) project, which was jointly funded by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals and GNS Science.
Visit the New Zealand Petroleum Basin Explorer (PBE).
See the full GNS Science press release here
Petroleum well summary sheets from Taranaki Basin, New Zealand: Selected wells from the Maui and Tui Field areas is released.
Well Sheets from 11 exploration and appraisal wells: Amokura-1, Kiwi-1, Maui-1, Maui-2, Maui-3, Maui-7, MB-P(8), Moki-1, Moki-2A, Pateke-2, and Tui-1 are now available through the New Zealand Petroleum Basin Explorer (PBE).
Petroleum Exploration and Geosciences Initiative (PEGI) is released
GNS Science releases 14 new products to the industry for free, see the GNS Science press release.
A full list of the new products available through the New Zealand Petroleum Basin Explorer (PBE) can be found here.
Other GNS Science Petroleum Geoscience data products are listed by geographical region on our products page.
Geological Transect Across the Wairoa Area
Insights into elements of the East Coast petroleum system
GNS Data Series 11a product compiles industry and research data on the Wairoa area of northern Hawke's Bay and summarises interpretations and conclusions relating mainly to the hydrocarbon reservoir potential of the Middle Miocene Tunanui Formation. Aspects addressed include clastic and fractured reservoir quality, seal quality, seismic interpretation and facies, faults and fault seal and the present stress regime.
Bibliographic reference
Field, B., Baur, J., Bland, K., Browne, G., Griffin, A., Ilg, B., Juniper, Z., Lawrence, M., Marrett, R., Mildren, S., Milner, M., Morgans, H., Roncaglia, L., Uruski, C., Zhu H. 2011. Geological Transect Across the Wairoa Area: Insights into elements of the East Coast petroleum system. GNS Data Series 11a.
FREE in the New Zealand Petroleum Basin Explorer (PBE)
Updated Paleogeographic maps of the Taranaki Basin and surrounds.
As part of the facies characterisation objective of the 4D Taranaki (4DT) Project, a regional reassessment of the paleogeographic evolution of the Taranaki Basin and surrounding areas has produced a set of 31 maps spanning the Late Cretaceous to present day, which expand on those from previous studies and incorporates significant new data. These maps capture the most important aspects of the tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the Taranaki Basin, and form the basis for ongoing detailed paleofacies mapping and basin modelling studies.
The product is available in two GIS geo-databases:
Strogen, D.P. (compiler), 2011. GIS project: Updated paleogeographic maps for the Taranaki Basin and surrounds - Cretaceous-Paleogene: early rift to maximum flooding. GNS Science data series, 5a.
Strogen, D.P. (compiler), 2011. GIS project: Updated paleogeographic maps for the Taranaki Basin and surrounds - Neogene: active margin tectonics. GNS Science data series, 5b.
Both of the above are combined on one CD priced at $30 plus postage.
Full bibliographic reference of the publicly available reportis:
Strogen, D.P. (compiler), 2011. Updated paleogeographic maps for the Taranaki Basin and surrounds. GNS Science Report, 2010/53. 83p.
Priced at $45 plus postage.
Chapter bibliographic references to reflect the relative authorships of the components of the publicly available report are:
Strogen, D.P., Baur, J.R., Bland, K.J. and King, P.R., 2011a. Cretaceous-Paleogene: early rift to maximum flooding. In: Strogen, D.P. (compiler), Updated paleogeographic maps for the Taranaki Basin and surrounds. GNS Science Report, 2010/53, pp.11-35.
Strogen, D.P., Bland, K.J., Baur, J.R., King, P.R., Vonk, A.J. and Kamp, P.J.J., 2011b. Neogene: active margin tectonics. In: Strogen, D.P. (compiler), Updated paleogeographic maps for the Taranaki Basin and surrounds. GNS Science Report, 2010/53, pp. 36-60.
Please contact GNS Science publication sales office to order copies of any of the above.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Higgs, K.E., Arnot, M.E., Browne, G.H., Kennedy, E.M. 2010. Reservoir potential of Late Cretaceous terrestrial and shallow marine sandstones, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand. Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology 27, 1849‐1871.
This recently published paper reviews the geology of Late Cretaceous rocks of Taranaki Basin. It integrates outcrop and subcrop data and emphasises the characteristics of these potentially significant reservoir facies. In related papers, GNS co‐workers have described much about the source rock potential of these sediments. In this paper the sedimentology of Rakopi and North Cape formation rocks are described, integrating wireline logs and biostratigraphy, petrographic data, and reservoir quality, with revised paleogeographies for the entire offshore portion of the basin (including 17 wells from Ariki‐1 in the north to Cook‐1 in the south).
Poppelreiter, M., Crookbain, R.A., Sapru, A.K., Lawrence, M.J.F. 2010. Applications of dipmeter and borehole image data in static models. In: Poppelreiter, M.; Garcia‐Carballido, C.; Kraaijveld, M. (eds). Dipmeter and borehole image log technology. Tulsa, Okla: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. AAPG Memoir 92. p. 67‐80
This is a review paper that discusses the application of dipmeter and borehole image data in static models with lots of examples and illustrations.
King, P.R., Ilg, B.R., Arnot, M, Browne, G.H., Strachan, L.J., Crundwell, M.P., Helle, K. 2011. Outcrop and seismic examples of mass‐transport deposits from a late Miocene deep‐water succession, Taranki Basin, New Zealand. In: Mass‐Transport Deposits in Deepwater Settings. SEPM Special Publication 96, 311‐350.
Just published in time for the AAPG Convention in Houston, this extensively illustrated paper describes Neogene mass transport deposits of North Taranaki. Outcrop and sub‐surface examples are provided, including numerous illustrations from seismic profiles. The whole volume is given over to describing MTDs from a range of settings in numerous basins, and is a great compendium for anyone interested in slumped or mass transport depositional settings and their implications to reservoir predictions and exploration.
Fielding, C.R., Browne, G.H., Field, B.D., Florindo, F., Harwood, D.M., Krissek, L.A., Levy, R., Panter, K., Passchier, S., Pekar, S.F. 2011. Sequence stratigraphy of the ANDRILL AND‐2A drillcore, Antarctica: a long‐term, ice‐proximal record of Early to mid‐Miocene climate, sea‐level and glacial dynamism. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 305, 337‐351.
This paper reviews the sequence stratigraphic implications of glacial successions cored in the recent ANDRILL South McMurdo Sound (SMS) drilling programme. This hole provides a fully cored +1150 m deep stratigraphic record as far back as the Early Miocene (20.2 Ma), a unique record of changing climate‐driven cyclicity in Antarctica. The paper has important implications for sedimentary records in other areas include the New Zealand Miocene.
Greg Browne wins Harold Wellman Prize.
Greg Browne won the Harold Wellman Prize at the annual New Zealand Geoscience Society Conference held in Auckland in December 2010. Greg was the first to discover dinosaur footprints from New Zealand, and published these findings in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics in 2009. LINK . The discovery is also the first record of dinosaur remains in the South Island. The find was made in tidal deposits of the Late Cretaceous North Cape Formation in northwest Nelson, and comprise a series of localities where a range of footprint sizes and morphologies are present. They were all formed by sauropods, large herbivorous dinosaurs with rather club-like feet. Full abstract.
Browne, G.H. 2009. First New Zealand record of probable dinosaur footprints from the Late Cretaceous North Cape Formation, northwest Nelson. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics 52, 367-377.
Paper on Late Cretaceous shallow marine sandstones published.
A recent paper published in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology LINK reviews the geology of Late Cretaceous rocks of Taranaki Basin. Authors Karen Higgs, Malcolm Arnot, Greg Browne, and Liz Kennedy have integrated outcrop and subcrop data in this review paper, which emphasises the characteristics of these potentially significant reservoir facies. GNS workers in related papers, have described much already about these sediments with respect to their source rock potential. In this paper the sedimentology of Rakopi and North Cape formation rocks are described, integrating wireline logs and biostratigraphy, petrographic data, and reservoir quality, with revised paleogeographies for the entire offshore portion of the basin (including 17 wells from Ariki-1 in the north to Cook-1 in the south). Full abstract.
Higgs, K.E., Arnot, M.J., Browne, G.H., Kennedy E.M. 2010. Reservoir potential of Late Cretaceous terrestrial to shallow marine sandstones, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand. Marine and Petroleum Geology 27, p. 1849-1871.