Oil shale of the Duaringa Basin, Central Queensland

✍ Scribed by Derek A. Dixon; Graham J. Pope

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 432 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-2361(87)90083-4

✦ Synopsis

Exploration in the Cainozoic Duaringa Basin of Central Queensland in 1978-80 led to the delineation of extensive oil shale deposits. The Basin is a north-northwest-trending half-graben, 180 km long and up to 20 km wide, superimposed on the deformed eastern margin of the Permo-Triassic Bowen Basin. It contains up to 1300 m of flat-lying shales and sandy mudstones of fluvio-lacustrine origin. Oil shale of Middle to Late Eocene age occurs in two near-surface seams (the 'resource seams') and associated with lignite several hundred metres stratigraphically below the resource seams. The shallow seams are estimated to contain a potential yield of 3.7 x lo9 barrels of shale oil at an average grade of 82 dm3 tonne-' at zero retort moisture (LTOM). The bulk of the resource is contained in the lower resource seam in three discrete areas.