--> Abstract: Petroleum Potential of the Eastern Arctic Continental Margin, by Evgheny Grokhotov; #90177 (2013)

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Petroleum Potential of the Eastern Arctic Continental Margin

Evgheny Grokhotov

The continental margin of East Siberian and Chukchi sea area is tectonically indivisible and passes on the North America margin. The main structures of the margin are oriented mostly conform the course of continental slope and South Anuiy suture, only some of them are oriented transversally. The East Siberian and Chukchi shelves are tectonically confined to 2 big structures: the Novosibirskaya epikimmeridgian plate and the Eastern Arctic border plate. The Novosibirskaya plate has characteristics of young continental platform such as folded basement with middle massifs (for example, Kotelnicheskiy), thick continental crust, small number of faults. On the contrary the Eastern Arctic border plate has the characteristics appropriate to continental margin structures of synoceanic type. It corresponds to shallow leveled shelf that is slightly titled toward the ocean. New basins are forming on this plate, they are synchronous to the ocean. In this case the intensive lowering of the external part of the margin proper to synoceanic stage is observed and it is happening with distance from spreading axis. Vast areas of shelf margins are represented as sedimentary basins inherited from the previous stages of tectonic evolution. The sedimentary basins of East Siberian and Chukchi seas are weakly affected by the process of destruction, that is why they are still having high petroleum potential. Petroleum potential of the Eastern Arctic continental margin is estimated at more than 10 billion tones of oil equivalent. The density of resources in particular parts can reach up to 50 thousand tones per square kilometer. Ranking of perspective objects on the shelf area was made considering the study of continental margins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90177©3P Arctic, Polar Petroleum Potential Conference & Exhibition, Stavanger, Norway, October 15-18, 2013