--> Abstract: Evaluating the Key Success Factors in Hydrocarbon Exploration in the Central Barents Sea: A Case Study from the Finnmark Platform, by Tommy Samuelsberg; #90177 (2013)

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Evaluating the Key Success Factors in Hydrocarbon Exploration in the Central Barents Sea: A Case Study from the Finnmark Platform

Tommy Samuelsberg

A range of different geological provinces with sedimentary rocks ranging in age from the Palaeozoic to Cenozoic characterizes the Barents Sea. As a result of large variety in geological setting, a range of play models are identified in different provinces of the Barents Sea. The southeastern part of the Norwegian Barents Sea displays similarities with the geological setting in the western part of the Russian Barents Sea with respect to source- and reservoir rock development. By studying the key success factors in hydrocarbon exploration in both areas, it is possible to make some overall assumptions on the prospectivity in the previously disputed area that may be opened for hydrocarbon exploration in the near future. Five exploration wells have been drilled on the eastern Finnmark Platform, while several exploration and delineation wells have been drilled within or at the margin of the South Barents Basin. A majority of the exploration wells has tested stratigraphic traps on the Finnmark Platform, while structural traps associated with phases of structural inversion have proven to be successful in the South Barents Basin. The basin represents a huge area with a deeply buried thick Palaeozoic section in the central parts where late Triassic and Jurassic plays are most prospective. Older plays are more prospective along the basin margins. In contrast to the Finnmark Platform, this area has been affected by Jurassic and Cretaceous compression and rapid subsidence in the Cretaceous. Presence of reservoir and source rocks is generally associated with low risk in both areas, while hydrocarbon retention and seal integrity represent the main risk in hydrocarbon exploration. However, understanding the timing of trap formation in combination with hydrocarbon migration and/or re-migration is believed to represent a key to successful exploration in the southern Barents Sea. Well 7128/4-1 proved oil and gas in Upper Permian spiculites on the Finnmark Platform, but several questions are still raised with regards to volumes and trapping mechanism. New evaluation indicates that a stratigraphic trap exists with porous spiculite facies grading updip into basinal shales and marls. Late stage migration of hydrocarbons following restructuring of the Finnmark Platform due to increased late stage uplift in the southern part is likely to have taken place. The timing of re-migration and fill-spill models may have proven to be critical for retention of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon phase within the plays on the southeastern Finnmark Platform.

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