Basin Outline
The Browse Basin is a northeast-trending, Paleozoic to Cenozoic depocentre situated entirely offshore in the Timor Sea region of Australia's North West Shelf. It covers an area of approximately 140000 km2 and contains in excess of 15 km of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary section (Struckmeyer et al, 1998). It hosts significant, but as yet undeveloped, reserves of gas and condensate. Six large gas fields have been discovered in the Browse Basin: Scott Reef (Torosa), Brecknock, Brecknock South (Calliance), Ichthys, Crux and Argus, together with a number of other smaller gas discoveries (Adele 1, Caspar 1A, Cornea field, Echuca Shoals 1 and Psepotus 1) (Figure 1 [PDF, 125KB]). Oil discoveries are focussed on the Yampi Shelf (Cornea field, Focus 1, Sparkle 1 and Gwydion 1), although oil was also discovered at Caswell 1 and 2 ST2 in the central Caswell Sub-basin. Oil and gas shows have been encountered in several other wells drilled in the basin.
The Browse Basin belongs to a series of extensional basins that form the Westralian Superbasin underlying the North West Shelf region (Bradshaw et al, 1988; Willis, 1988). The basin is contiguous with the Rowley Sub-basin of the Roebuck Basin to the southwest, and the Ashmore Platform, Vulcan Sub-basin and Londonderry High structural elements of the Bonaparte Basin to the northeast (Figure 2 [PDF, 123KB]).
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