North West Shelf

The North West Shelf is a continental shelf region of Western Australia. It includes an extensive oil and gas region off the North West Australia coast in the Pilbara region.

The Northwest Shelf marine province, as defined by the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (ICMRA), contains the North West Shelf region.

Geology

Considerable parts of the region are the highest prospective gas and oil areas of Australia. The main sedimentary basin providing the opportunity is the Northern Carnarvon Basin - however it is only one part of the regional complex.[1]

Oil and gas

It has a considerable number of oil and gas wells, pipelines, production areas and support facilities.[2][3]

Location

As an area it is located in the Indian Ocean between North West Cape and Dampier. Dampier is usually considered the main administrative locality for the shelf.

Production areas

The production areas are located offshore and within the jurisdiction of the Western Australian state government.

The two main production areas are the Thevenard Production Area close to Onslow, and the Varanus Production Area west of Dampier.

Oil fields

The North West Shelf oil extraction is negligible compared to the volume of gas produced.

Gas project
North West Shelf Venture leases and infrastructure

The North West Shelf Venture[4] is a project to extract resources within the region from various gas fields - however it is considered to be only in part of the whole shelf region. It involves developments on the Burrup Peninsula, Barrow Island and other locations.[5]

See also

References
  1. Geoscience Australia – Offshore Northwest Australia Archived 5 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. State Reference Library of Western Australia; Library Board of Western Australia; J. S. Battye Library of West Australian History (1983), North west shelf : resources and responsibility, Library Board of Western Australia, retrieved 1 June 2015
  3. North West Shelf Symposium (1988 : Perth, W.A.); Purcell, Peter G; Purcell, R. R. (Robyn R.); Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. Western Australian Branch (1988), The North West Shelf, Australia, [PESA], ISBN 978-0-9588440-1-7
  4. Atherton, Graeme, and Rick Wilkinson. (1989) Beyond the flame : the story of Australia's North West shelf natural gas project Perth, W.A.: Government and Public Affairs Division, Woodside Offshore Petroleum
  5. Murray, Robert; Murray, Robert (1991), From the edge of a timeless land : a history of the North West Shelf Gas Project, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-0-04-442295-2

Further reading
  • (1980) State of excitement over North-West Shelf Gas Fields. Petroleum gazette, Sept. 1980, p. 58-62,


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