Basin Evolution and Source Rock Potential in the Mid Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of East Greenland: Implications for Exploration in Mid Norway and the Northeast Greenland Shelf

Dominic P. Strogen and Andrew G. Whitham
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Late Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous organic rich mudstones are exposed across a wide area of East Greenland. Temporal and spatial variations in source rock development in East Greenland provide valuable constraints on the likely distribution of source rocks in frontier areas of offshore Mid Norway (Vøring and Møre basins) and the Northeast Greenland Shelf. They also give valuable insights into the basin evolution and rift history of this part of the North Atlantic rift system.
This study brings together sedimentological and source rock data from throughout onshore East Greenland and documents the basin evolution and source rock prospectivity through the Callovian to Valanginian. Potential gas- and oil-prone source rocks were deposited in onshore areas of East Greenland from the Late Oxfordian through to the Late Ryazanian. Previous workers reported the cessation of source rock deposition in the Early Volgian. Evidence of continued deposition of oil-prone source rocks in East Greenland through to the Late Ryazanian has important implications for exploration in Mid Norway, as the continued deposition of source rocks during rifting makes their widespread preservation more likely. The cessation of source rock deposition in the Late Ryazanian appears to be synchronous throughout the whole rift system (North Sea-Greenland-Mid Norway-Barents Shelf). Thickness variations in the Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian suggest that active rifting may have occurred at this time in addition to the well recognised rift events in the Bajocian-Oxfordian and Mid Volgian-Valanginian.

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