North Barents Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element

Abstract

Abstract The North Barents Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element could represent a prosperous petroleum province in the Arctic, with several large basins, platforms and highs identified. The sedimentary succession ranges from the Late Paleozoic and continues throughout most of the Mesozoic. Terrestrial sediments of the Billefjorden Group (Famennian–Visean) are likely to be present, and are overlain by evaporites and carbonates of the Gipsdalen Group (Serpukhovian–Late Artinskian). Most of the Triassic is dominated by deposits from a huge prograding deltaic system building out from the south, SE and east, becoming successively younger towards NW. The system was primarily sourced from the Urals but also partly from mainland Norway and, most probably, from Taimyr. The progradation started in the Late Permian and reached Svalbard in the Early Carnian. The entire delta system was flooded during the regional Early Norian transgression, resulting in the deposition of marine shales of the Flatsalen Formation (Svalbard) and the time-equivalent Akkar Member of the Fruholmen Formation (Barents Sea). The Cretaceous and the Paleogene are, respectively, comprehensively and completely eroded. During the Pliocene–Pleistocene, the entire Barents shelf was a site of repeated glaciations, resulting in extensive erosion. Hydrocarbon source rocks occur at several stratigraphic levels from the Carboniferous to the Jurassic, of which the most important is assumed to be the Lower–Middle Triassic Steinkobbe/Botneheia Formation. The Upper Jurassic Hekkingen Formation, where present, is likely to be immature across the whole area. Potential reservoir rocks are Permian carbonates and siliciclastic rocks of Carboniferous and Mesozoic age.