Initiation of petroleum exploration in Jameson Land, East Greenland

Abstract

Active petroleum exploration in East Greenland is of fairly recent date and was preceded by a much longer history of scientific work and mineral exploration. The discovery in 1948 of lead-zinc mineralisation at Mestersvig resulted in the formation of Nordisk Mineselskab AIS in 1952. In the beginning of the seventies Nordisk Mineselskab initiated cooperation with the American oil company Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) in order to undertake petroleum exploration in Jameson Land. The Jameson Land basin contains a very thick Upper Palaeozoic - Mesozoic sedimentary sequence. Important potential source rocks are Lower Permian lacustrine mudstone, Upper Permian black marine mudstone, Middle Triassic dark marine limestone, uppermost Triassic black marginal marine mudstone, Lower Jurassic black mudstone and Upper Jurassic deep shelf black mudstone. Tbe Upper Permian mudstone, which is the most promising source rock, is immature to weakly mature along the western basin margin and is expected to be in the oil or gas-generating zone when deeply buried in the central part of the basin. Potential reservoir rocks include Upper Permian bank and mound limestones, uppermost Permian fan delta sandstones, Lower Triassic aeolian and braided river sandstones, and Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic sandstones. The most important trap types are expected to be stratigraphic, such as Upper Permian limestone bodies, or combination stratigraphic-structural such as uppermost Permian or Lower Triassic sandstones in Early Triassic tilted fault blocks. In the offshore areas additional play types are probably to be found in tilted Jurassic fault blocks containing thick Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic sandstones and lowermost Cretaceous sandstones and conglomerates. The recognition of the potential of the Upper Permian in petroleum exploration in East Greenland has important implications for petroleum exploration on the Norwegian shelf.