IODP evidence for the development of source potential in the Cretaceous offshore Northwest Europe and Eastern Canada.

Abstract

In 2016 APT undertook analyses on IODP wells around the Goban Spur, Western Approaches and Galician margin together with sites offshore Canada to assess the source potential of the sections penetrated. 91 samples were acquired from 26 boreholes. Of these, 45 samples were screened for TOC and a subset selected for Rock Eval and GC with 3 samples undergoing full GC-MS biomarker and carbon isotope analyses. This work formed part of a larger commercial project looking at source rocks and oil families across the North Atlantic Conjugate Margins. Results are presented and we discuss the observations in relation to the wider geological setting and depositional system. Good to fair quality but thin, oil prone, source rocks were identified in the Turonian of Newfoundland and the Cenomanian - Turonian of the Goban Spur. Fair quality source rocks in the Aptian of the Goban Spur and good quality gas prone source rocks in the Albian of Nova Scotia, the Cenomanian – Turonian of the Goban Spur and the late Cenomanian of the Galician Bank. Consideration is given to the likelihood of maturation being achieved in the basinal deeps and we indicate what characteristics might be expected in a Cretaceous sourced oil.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90325 © 2018 AAPG Europe Regional Conference, Global Analogues of the Atlantic Margin, Lisbon, Portugal, May 2-3, 2018