Initial situation and open questions (2013)
Report of the project:
Studies of the US American Geological Survey (USGS) postulate, with a very high level of uncertainty, that about a quarter of the world’s undetected oil and gas resources lie in the Arctic. On the East Greenland shelf, for example (Gautier 2007; Gautier et al. 2009), estimated deposits are between 9 and 32 billion barrels of oil and 0.7 – 6.4 trillion cubic meters of gas. These estimations are based on probability calculations taken from comparison areas with assumed similar geological development and sedimentary cover.
The uncertainties are caused by the still insufficient data density of this region, which is logistically hard to explore, and by the complicated basin formation processes during the opening of the Norwegian Sea.
The region is characterized by passive and sheared continental margins and was overprinted by strong volcanism and salt tectonics.
Potential source rocks, locally deep sinkings and regional reservoir and cover rocks suggest the prospectivity of extensive sedimentary basins of this region as well as analogies to the central Norwegian shelf, which is highly productive.
The stratigraphical classification of the available reflection seismic profiles, however, is still largely unclear and the effects of geologically younger uplift incidents are not explored. Some parts of the continental margin are masked by paleogene basalts. There is considerable uncertainty on the question how far the prospective Greenland continental shelf extends towards east and where the transition to oceanic crust takes place. Large areas, e. g. off the eastern coast of Greenland and in the northern Barents Sea, are currently only insufficiently explored. Their geological development is still widely unexplained.
Literature:
Gautier, D. L., K. J. Bird, et al. (2009). Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas in the Arctic. Science 324 (5931): 1175-1179.
Gautier, D. L., (2007). Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal: Estimates of undiscovered oil and gas north of the Arctic Circle. USGS- Fact Sheet 2008-3049