The Amadeus Basin accounts for all past and current gas and oil production in the Northern Territory.
The Territory’s current onshore gas production is entirely sourced from Mereenie, Palm Valley and Dingo fields in the Amadeus Basin operated by Central Petroleum Ltd.
Production
Central Petroleum Ltd operates all the producing fields within the Amadeus Basin. Total production from the Amadeus Basin to the end of 2023 is 496 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas and 19.1 million barrels of oil.
Annual petroleum production for 2023 was 13.71 bcf of gas comprising:
Mereenie oil and gas field - 8.77 bcf of gas and 0.12 million barrels of oil
The Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic Amadeus Basin covers an area of approximately 170,000 km2 in the Northern Territory and extends into Western Australia. The basin hosts up to five conventional petroleum systems. The Ordovician systems contains the producing Mereenie and Palm Valley fields that have been in production since 1983 in addition to the Surprise oil field that was producing between 2014 and 2015. The Dingo gas field is part of a Neoproterozoic aged petroleum system. The field was discovered in 1981 and production commenced in 2015.
The other prospective petroleum systems identified in the Amadeus Basin include three Neoproterozoic systems and a Neoproterozoic to Cambrian system comprising a variety of structural and stratigraphic traps. The basin is also a target for helium and naturally-occurring hydrogen in Neoproterozoic sub-salt plays. Thick sequences of Ordovician and Neoproterozoic shales have also been intermittently explored for shale gas and liquid potential.
Annual updated petroleum production from the Amadeus Basin fields plus onshore oil and gas reserves and resources for combined Northern Territory (NT) onshore basins can be found on the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade website.
