Sedimentary Basin (GeoEnergy) Short Courses

If your organisation is interested in working in a particular basin, then our sedimentary basin course will help you understand its past (geological evolution and history of exploration) and its future (potential for use in energy transition industries and any necessary production infrastructure).  

The School of Chemical Engineering hosts Australia’s leading grouping of sedimentary basin experts and they will cover all aspects of the analysis of sedimentary basins and their energy resources, from initial exploration, through to characterisation of sedimentary reservoirs and aquifers, and identifying suitable locations for carbon geostorage.  

Our courses

  • Get to know your basin

    What is covered  

    Some of Australia’s key basins for subsurface industries include the Cooper, Bowen, McArthur, Browse, Carnarvon, Otway, Gippsland and Eromanga. Choose to learn more about one of these basins or let us know which basin you are interested in, and this course will provide you with an overview of that area.  

    What you will learn  

    • The history of exploration and production in the basin of your choice  
    • Its’ geological evolution and why it is there  
    • Key elements of the basin such as seals and reservoirs  
    • Production infrastructure considerations such as pipelines and access to markets  
    • The basin’s potential for energy transition industries such as hydrogen and carbon storage. 

  • Introduction to Petroleum Engineering

    What is covered  

    Also known as ‘Engineering for Geologists’, this course is for anyone not qualified in petroleum engineering but needing to understand the basics. 

    What you will learn  

    • The fundamentals of petroleum drilling, completions and production 
    • The mechanics of petroleum reservoirs  
    • Basic rock and fluid properties  
    • The composition and PVT properties of petroleum fluids  
    • Key physical and chemical properties of petroleum reservoir fluids and how they relate to reservoir processes and production. 

  • Sedimentary basins: a guide for mineral explorers

    What is covered  

    If you are a mineral industry professional seeking to better understand the origin and structural and stratigraphic architecture of sedimentary basins in order to explore for sedimentary-hosted mineral deposits, then this course is for you.   

    What you will learn  

    • How sedimentary basins form  
    • Different geophysical and geological approaches to subsurface characterisation  
    • Relevant global, regional and local-scale controls on basin-filling processes  
    • The controls on fluid flow in sedimentary basins  
    • Key similarities and differences between petroleum and mineral systems. 

  • Fundamentals of energy geoscience

    What is covered  

    This course will equip you with the skills to characterise and interpret sedimentary basin rock systems as the potential hosts of conventional and unconventional petroleum resources, resources for gas energy storage and by-product sequestration, water resources and geothermal resources. It also covers wellsite operations such as drilling, wireline logging and well testing so is a great course for those looking at petrophysical logs and well test data. 

    What you will learn  

    • Advanced knowledge in subsurface energy geoscience disciplines including sedimentology and stratigraphy, seismic interpretation and subsurface mapping, and structural geology and geomechanics 
    • Skills relating to wellsite operations (drilling and wireline logging) and petrology/diagenesis 
    • The current and future context for subsurface energy geoscience, as relates to petroleum and other subsurface fluid reservoir resources for the energy transition 
    • How to analyse critically, evaluate and transform complex information (e.g. wireline log data, core, seismic reflection survey data) in order to interpret data from ancient sedimentary successions 
    • How to communicate this knowledge and understanding to specialist audiences.

  • Advanced energy geoscience

    What is covered  

    Building on the Fundamentals of energy geoscience course, the advanced course looks at the application of advanced techniques and concepts for the analysis and interpretation of subsurface sedimentary rock systems, particularly relevant to exploration and production operations.  

    What you will learn  

    • Knowledge of rock and fault mechanics and the principles of structural geology analysis  
    • How to interpret and correlate wireline log data to produce palaeogeographic interpretations and facies maps 
    • What 'carbonates' are and why they are important 
    • Specialist knowledge of fluid flow in sedimentary basins subject to multiple phases of deformation, and experience in appraising their resource potential 
    • The principles of image logging techniques and how to interpret image log data  
    • The principles of seismic survey acquisition design and data processing  
    • How to use machine learning to demonstrate and model data relationships in hyper-dimensional data space. 

  • Basin energy resource evaluation

    What is covered  

    This course brings together the disciplines of geology, geophysics, reservoir engineering and decision-making to provide an integrated approach to evaluating energy resources in sedimentary basins from a business perspective.  

    What you will learn  

    • A fundamental understanding of the concepts behind economic evaluation in an energy resource context  
    • How to put these concepts into practice, including cash-flows, net present value and portfolio management  
    • The high-level technical resource issues which impact on business decisions including the prospects for CO2 disposal and hydrogen storage and how to identify and manage non-potable water resources for generating green hydrogen  

  • Geo-energy systems in sedimentary basins

    What is covered  

    Covering a range of topics related to the key elements and processes of a petroleum system, this course applies this resource system concept to define the operating components of the other geological energy systems in sedimentary basins that will become key parts of the energy transition.  

    What you will learn  

    • Specialised knowledge in petroleum geoscience disciplines related to petroleum systems especially sedimentology, stratigraphy, structural geology and basin evolution 
    • How to both independently and as a team critically analyse and synthesise complex information in order to interpret data from regional geologic observations 
    • How to communicate this knowledge and understanding to specialist audiences. 

  • Petrophysics of energy resource systems

    What is covered  

    Our Petrophysics of energy resource systems course will give participants an overview of well-logging concepts, the measurement or inference of basic rock properties, the wellbore environment, petrophysical tools, interpretation concepts and the standard petrophysical analysis, interpretation and modelling workflow. Industry-standard petrophysical reporting will also be demonstrated and assessed. 

    What you will learn  

    • The theoretical basis and practical limitations of logging tools and data 
    • Both qualitative (quick look) and quantitative approaches to reservoir definition using logging data 
    • How to integrate log, core and pressure data to fully characterise a formation and its fluids. 

Tailor it

Field trips 

Our experienced team can arrange field trips to a range of basins including: 

  • Otway Basin 
  • Lake Eyre Basin 
  • Amadeus Basin 

We also run a field trip to the ‘Outcrop Reservoir Analogues of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia’ which includes a basic introduction to field geology and sedimentologic logging followed by a deeper look into sedimentology and stratigraphy. Please contact us if you are interested in receiving field-based training. 

See also: