Evaluating the Petroleum Potential of the Norwegian Southern Barents Shelf by Combining Geological Knowledge and New Technology

Tommy Samuelsberg, Erik Mårten Blixt, and Torgeir Bjelvin
Discover Petroleum, Tromsø, Norway

The sedimentary strata of the Norwegian Barents Shelf include rocks and sediments ranging in age from Pre-Cambrian to recent. A range of different playmodels have been defined in both the Hammerfest Basin and other geological provinces in the Southern Norwegian Barents Shelf. Reservoir potential has been proven in rocks ranging in age from Lower Carboniferous to Miocene, while source potential has been proven in shales and marls ranging in age from Upper Permian to Lower Cretaceous. Traps are defined by both stratigraphic pinch-out traps and structural traps. The latter are defined by four way domal structures, rotated faultblocks, down-faulted traps controlled by sealing faults or structure originated from salt movements.
Significant uplift has affected the Barents Shelf at several stages in post Triassic times. These events have had significant influence on hydrocarbon accumulations, and the single most important risk factor is believed to be associated with late uplift. However, by combining new ideas with the use of new technology, risk may be reduced significantly as the most critical factors may be re-evaluated in a pre-drilling phase.
A hydrocarbon accumulation represents a body of increased resistivity, and the industry has for some years now searched for technologies which can “sense” such bodies in the subsurface. Electromagnetic technologies have been applied with a variable degree of success on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. However, it is assumed that improvement and implementation of the technology in the risk evaluation process represent the key to a successful way of exploring for hydrocarbons, especially in environmentally sensitive and high-cost areas like the Barents Shelf. In contrast to common technology available on the marked, Discover Petroleum utilize a time-domain EM technology with vertical transmitter and receiver.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece