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Palynology is the study of microorganisms and microscopic fragments of mega-organisms that are composed of acid-resistant organic material and occur in the biosphere and geosphere. While the earliest records of microscopic examination of pollen grains date back to the 16th century the oil industry is credited with demonstrating the usefulness of palynomorphs in the study of stratigraphic sequences of rocks.

The use of palynology for stratigraphic age determination logs the occurrence of palynomorphs and uses the known age ranges of pollen, spores, orbicules, dinocysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts to define the stratigraphic age of the palynomorph-containing sediments. Advances in palynological processing and analysis methods, including the introduction of quantitative analysis in the 1980’s, together with continued improved understanding of the stratigraphic ranges of individual palynomorphs and palynomorph assemblages has led to its widespread use in both petroleum exploration wells and in oil and gas field development.

While most palynological studies are carried out in the laboratory, as part of a well post-mortem, when real-time stratigraphic control is required, the work can be carried out on wellsite. Wellsite biostratigraphy has been carried out widely in Eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and, to a lesser extent, the Australian Northwest Shelf.