Inversion structures as potential petroleum exploration targets on Nuussuaq and northern Disko, onshore West Greenland

Erik V. Sørensen,Flemming Getreuer Christiansen,Asger K. Pedersen,John R. Hopper,Henrik Nøhr-Hansen,Gunver K. Pedersen,Pierpaolo Guarnieri

doi:10.34194/geusb.v38.4406

Erik V. Sørensen, Flemming Getreuer Christiansen + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.34194/geusb.v38.4406

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Abstract

The onshore Cretaceous–Paleocene Nuussuaq Basin in West Greenland (Fig. 1) has long served as an analogue for offshore petroleum exploration. With the discovery of oil seeps on Disko, Nuussuaq, Ubekendt Ejland and Svartenhuk Halvø in the early 1990s, onshore exploration was also carried out. This eventually resulted in the GRO#3 wildcat exploration well on western Nuussuaq in 1996, which showed several intervals with hydrocarbons (Christiansen et al. 1997). Recent photogrammetric mapping of conspicuous marker horizons within the volcanic sequences of the basin shows that significant compressional structures may have developed in the latest Paleocene on central Nuussuuaq and northern Disko that could be promising potential exploration targets.

Highlights

The onshore Cretaceous–Paleocene Nuussuaq Basin in West Greenland (Fig. 1) has long served as an analogue for offshore petroleum exploration
The Nuussuaq Basin, central West Greenland, is a rift basin that developed during the Cretaceous–Paleocene in response to regional extension between Greenland and Canada
It is situated at the north-eastern edge of a complex system of rift basins and transfer systems that linked extension and sea-floor spreading in the Labrador Sea to the Baffin Bay (Fig. 1)

Summary

Regional geological setting of the Nuussuaq Basin

The Nuussuaq Basin, central West Greenland, is a rift basin that developed during the Cretaceous–Paleocene in response to regional extension between Greenland and Canada. It is situated at the north-eastern edge of a complex system of rift basins and transfer systems that linked extension and sea-floor spreading in the Labrador Sea to the Baffin Bay (Fig. 1). The basin was formed by two major phases of extension in the Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous, with an intervening quiescent period of thermal subsidence, when thick successions of source-prone mudstone were deposited regionally (see Dam et al 2009 for a detailed summary of the lithostratigraphy of the basin). Based on seismic-stratigraphic interpretation constrained by wells, this time marks

Photogrammetric mapping of inversion structures

Disko M

Distribution of potential source rocks

Conclusions