Circumpolar oil-and-gas-bearing basins of the arctic part of the North American continent

Abstract

Major geotectonic elements of the reviewed territory of the Arctic part of the North American continent are the Hyperborean Precambrian Platform, the Franklin folding belt, the northern part of the Precambrian Canadian platform, and the Mesozoic folding belt of Canada and Alaska. The rise of the Arctic slope of Alaska, the Beaufort Sea, and the Sverdrup basin are located in the southern margins of the Hyperborean Platform. The structure and peculiarities of development of these structural elements are genetically related to the evolution of this platform, as well as the current state of petroleum potential of the most promising exploration region of Arctic in the 21st century. The forced exploration of the Arctic regions of the United States and Canada has become an important milestone in the current development of the world energetics. Up to 100 oil, gas, and gas condensate fields have been discovered as a result of violent studies, and the potential oil and gas reserves in the Arctic part of the North American continent have been estimated to 30 billiion t and 50 trillion cubic meters, respectively. Many prospects are related to the continental slopes of all three above-mentioned basins; the total potential reserves of slopes are estimated as 10–12 billion t of oil and 20–25 trillion cubic meters of gas.