Analysis of petroleum systems and assessment of petroleum resources in the West Barents Sea Basin, Arctic

Abstract

The West Barents Sea Basin in the Arctic is one of the most promising petroleum basins in the world. With the latest data from the IHS database, this study investigated the petroleum geology of the basin, documented the distribution characteristics of petroleum resources, systematically analyzed the petroleum systems and plays, evaluated the resource potential, and predicted the favorable exploration fairways in the West Barents Sea Basin. The results show that regionally, discovered oil and gas accumulations are mainly distributed in the southwest area of the basin; stratigraphically, oil and gas reserves are mainly confined to the Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs, which host 72.6% and 15.5% of the total proved and probable reserves, respectively. The basin has two known petroleum systems: the Jurassic/Triassic composite petroleum system and the Permian/Carboniferous composite petroleum system. The resource evaluation by the Monte Carlo statistical methodology indicates that the means of undiscovered resources in the West Barents Sea Basin are 487.4×106 t of oil, 1375.6×109 m3 of gas, and 84.6×106 t of condensate, amounting to 1681.9×106 t, of which the gas accounts for 66.0%. Based on the results of resource evaluation and comprehensive analysis of petroleum geology, two favorable exploration fairways were selected: the favorable exploration zone of the Jurassic play and the favorable exploration zone of the Triassic play in the southern area of the basin.

Keywords

• west barents sea basin
• petroleum system
• play
• resource assessment
• favorable play fairways