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Abstract/Excerpt

Complex Tectonic Development of the Barents Sea - Geohistory, Erosion, Glaciations

W. Fjeldskaar¹, A. Amantov², and I. Grunnaleite³
¹Tectonor, Stavanger, Norway
²VSEGEI, St. Petersburg, Russia
³Tectonor, Bergen, Norway

Basin modeling aims at reconstructing the time evolution of a sedimentary basin in order to make quantitative predictions of hydrocarbons accumulations. With increasing geological complexity of relevant sedimentary basins, there is a growing need for basin modeling tools that can handle more of the complex controlling geological processes that lead to the generation and migration of hydrocarbons. Barents Sea is a good example; it has gone through a complex tectonic development.

The western Barents Sea is characterized by broad platform areas cut by fairly narrow rifts. In contrast, the Eastern Barents Sea is a very broad and deep sag basin with little internal structuring. Glacial climate changes over the last million years have influenced the distribution of oil and gas reserves in the Barents Sea. Hydrocarbon exploration in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea has been rather unsuccessful so far; numerous glaciations during the last 3 million years are regarded to be a major cause for this.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #120098©2013 AAPG Hedberg Conference Petroleum Systems: Modeling the Past, Planning the Future, Nice, France, October 1-5, 2012