Using 2D and 3D basin modelling to investigate controls on hydrocarbon migration and accumulation in the Vulcan Sub-basin, Timor Sea, northwestern Australia

2D and 3D basin models have been constructed of the southern and central parts of the Vulcan Sub-basin region, in the Timor Sea. This work was carried out to better elucidate the petroleum migration and accumulation histories, and exploration potential, of the region. 2D/3D modelling in the Swan Graben indicates that horizontal and downward oil expulsion from the source rocks of the Late Jurassic Lower Vulcan Formation into the Plover Formation sandstone was active from the Early Cretaceous to the present day. Oil migration from the Lower Vulcan Formation into the Late Cretaceous Puffin Formation sands in the Puffin field was simulated by lateral migration along the bottom of an Upper Vulcan Formation seal and by vertical migration above the seal edge. Modelling also indicates that Late Jurassic sequences over the Montara Terrace are thermally immature, and did not contribute to the hydrocarbon accumulations in the region. On the other hand, 3D modelling results indicate that Middle Jurassic Plover Formation in the Montara Terrace became thermally mature after the Pliocene and hence it could contribute both to the hydrocarbon accumulations and the overall hydrocarbon inventory in the area. In the southern Cartier Trough, the Lower Vulcan Formation is typically at a lower thermal maturity than that seen in the Swan Graben, due to a combination of a relatively recent (Pliocene) enhanced burial history and a thinner Lower Vulcan Formation. Here, horizontal and downward oil/gas expulsion from the Lower Vulcan Formation into the Plover Formation sandstone was active from the Late Tertiary to present day, which is significantly later than the expulsion in the Swan Graben. Oil migration from the Lower Vulcan Formation into the Jabiru structure via the Plover Formation carrier bed, was simulated in both 2D and 3D modelling. In particular, 3D modelling simulated oil migration into the Jabiru structure, not only from the southern Cartier Trough after the Miocene, but also early migration from the northern Swan Graben in the Early Cretaceous. In the central Cartier Trough, the areal extent of both generation and expulsion increased as a result of rapid subsidence from about 5 Ma to present day. This Pliocene loading has resulted in the rapid maturation of the Early to Middle and Late Jurassic source system, and expulsion of oil very recently.