Australia’s Dorado: A black gold bonanza

After three decades without sizable discoveries, Western Australia is now the country’s most exciting exploration province

Australia's largest oil find in three decades reportedly came about by accident. Perth-based mid-cap explorer Carnarvon Petroleum was looking to prove the size of its Phoenix South gas resource when it stumbled upon a vast oil find in shallow water close to shore. Located in the Bedout Sub-basin, some 100km (62 miles) off the coast just north of Karratha, the Dorado field is estimated to hold an initial 171m barrels of oil and 16m barrels of condensate, a 2C liquids total of 186m barrels. This is well above the average discovery size of 60m barrels in the North West Shelf (NWS). Dorado is also estimated to hold 552bn cubic feet (2C) of gas, giving a total volume of oil equivalent at 283m bar