What are the Consequences of the Cenozoic Glaciation Events on the Petroleum Systems in the Norwegian Barents Sea?

Krzysztof Zieba

Widespread glaciations during the late Pliocene-Pleistocene resulted in extensive erosion from the continental shelf areas of the Norwegian Barents Sea. It also led to synchronous deposition of thick sedimentary wedges on the continental slopes (Laberg et al. 2010, 2012). This large-mass redistribution resulted in uplift and tilting of underlying traps, and most likely affected the entire hydrocarbon systems. Some of the potential consequences are: changes in hydrocarbon generation, secondary migration, fluid composition and location of pools (Doré et al. 2000, 2002). In the Norwegian Barents Sea many of the uplift consequences have not been fully understood yet. The most important questions are: - Have the Cenozoic uplift and erosion events of the western Barents Sea caused gas expansion and leakage? - What is a magnitude of gas expansion and leakage caused by these events? - How much petroleum has leaked and how much is left? In order to address these questions SINTEF Petroleum Research introduced the project 'Impact of Cenozoic structural development and glacial erosion on gas expansion, hydraulic fracturing and leakage' using basin modelling approaches. A key part of this project is my Ph.D. work. I am going to present the Ph.D. work setup which includes building a complete basin model of a selected area in the Norwegian Barents Sea. The basin model input I am going to use includes a new source-rock model, new pressure and secondary migration model. Physical parameters of sedimentary rocks dependent on uplift will be refined by lab tests. Cenozoic burial history will be reconstructed, considering new erosion and glaciation concepts (Knies et al. 2012, Laberg et al. 2012). An impact of various ice-load scenarios on the pressure and migration modelling will be evaluated by using probabilistic Monte-Carlo modelling techniques. keywords: Barents Sea, Cenozoic, glaciations, hydrocarbon potential

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