Petroleum Systems and Hydrocarbon Resources of the Arctic Basins

Didier Arbouille¹ and Ken Chew^2
1Energy, IHS Inc., Geneva, Switzerland.
²Energy, IHS Inc., By Killin, United Kingdom.

Petroleum-generating systems are known from at least 23 geological provinces north of the Arctic Circle (66°N). Over the past 75 years, hydrocarbon exploration of these and other basins has resulted in some 450 discoveries. Although discoveries have been reported from 17 different basins onshore and offshore Alaska, Canada, Norway and Russia, 75% of all discovered resources by volume are located in the portion of Russia’s Western Siberia Basin that lies north of the Arctic Circle.

Collectively these Arctic discoveries account for 2.5% of global conventional liquids discovered to date and 15.5% of the world’s discovered conventional natural gas.

Hydrocarbon accumulations discovered in the Arctic region have been generated from nearly 40 different petroleum systems. The main elements of these petroleum systems such as sources, reservoirs and seals are described and the chronology of these depositional events is summarized in two chronologic charts representing the Eastern and Western hemispheres. The accumulations occur in rocks ranging from Cambrian to Pleistocene in age but 94% of all Arctic hydrocarbon resources occur in clastic reservoirs of Mesozoic age.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90096©2009 AAPG 3-P Arctic Conference and Exhibition, Moscow, Russia