"Most of Australia's land lies offshore under the sea. We know very little about it, in fact we know more about the surface of Mars," Dr Clinton Foster, from Geoscience Australia said. "The program aims to find a new oil province that will satisfy Australia's future energy needs."

"At present about three-quarters of Australia's oil supplies come from local production. But the country's reliance on imported oil will increase in the near future," Dr Foster added. "Without a new province, oil production will fall by 40% over the next ten years."

Centering on the Bremer Sub-Basin, the expedition is the first funded under the Australian Government's $61 million four-year petroleum initiative announced last year.

The Bremer Sub- Basin is a quarter the size of Tasmania and lies 1000 to 4000 metres below the sea surface, offshore between Albany and Esperance. The gently sloping basin is cut by the Albany Canyons, which slice one kilometre into the structure.

"This is the first expedition which focuses on finding evidence of oil, by looking at the rock record in the Bremer Sub-Basin," Dr Neville Exon, said. "We'll use cutting edge technology to find clues in the rocks; pointing to oil potential in the area. We'll map the seafloor; take high resolution images of what the geology looks like down to two kilometers below the seabed and collect rock and sediment samples."

The Bremer Sub-Basin was formed when Australia and Antarctica split, about 100 million years ago, and the area between the continents was filled by sediments and organic matter. Over time, layer upon layer of sediments have fallen over the organic matter and may have turned it into oil through heating at depth.

"We'll bring rocks to the surface which haven't seen the sun for over 100 million years." Dr Exon exclaimed. "They are a link to the past and will help to tell us whether the conditions were right for oil formation and trapping."

The month long expedition is aboard the National Research Facility, Southern Surveyor. Starting in Fremantle, the expedition will dock briefly in Albany after two weeks and then continue on its mission, ending in Hobart.

Results from the expedition will be used to plan a second Geoscience Australia expedition to the Bremer Sub-Basin later this year, focusing on gaining an in-depth understanding of the geological structure up to 8 kilometres under the seafloor.