Mid-Palaeozoic Sedimentary Facies and Hydrocarbon Occurrences, North Novaya Zemlya, Arctic Russia

Li Guo¹, Roman Schekoldin², Robert A. Scott¹, James P. Howard¹, and Jenny E. Omma^1
1University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
²St Petersburg State Mining Institute, St Petersburg, Russia

Widespread hydrocarbon occurrences were discovered in Devonian-Carboniferous carbonates of North Novaya Zemlya, Arctic Russia. These discoveries provide important new insight into the hydrocarbon potential of the adjacent eastern Barents and Kara seas.
The Devonian and Carboniferous strata of Novaya Zemlya can be generally divided into the Barents and Kara facies zones. The former is dominanted by deposition of a shallow marine carbonate shelf with abundant coral-stromatoporoid reefs in the southern, western and northern parts of Novaya Zemlya; the latter consists mainly of turbidites, shales, cherts and carbonate mudstones, which were deposited in a deepwater slope and basin floor setting in the central and eastern parts of the archipelago. Deposition of the Devonian and Carboniferous was strongly affected by extensional tectonism. In particular, a period of rifting/relative sea-level fall occurred in the late Givetian-early Frasnian and resulted in the reactivation of basement lineaments as normal faults, basic volcanism and subaerial exposure in much of Novaya Zemlya.
Source rocks could be formed in the Late Devonian and through the Carboniferous in the Kara facies zone. Reservoirs are mainly hosted by syn-tectonic fractures and associated secondary pore systems in carbonates of the Barents facies zone. In addition, good porosity could have been formed at the top of the Mid Devonian in some part of the Barents facies zone due to intense dissolution and karstification. Dolomites that generated abundant secondary porosity in the Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous would also make good targets.

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