New contributions in Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea petroleum exploration and development geoscience

Abstract

Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea encompass a vast marine region straddling the international jurisdictions of Canada and Greenland (Fig. 1). Together, these marine bodies encompass more than 1 500 000 km2 and they are bounded by a vast and geographically-complicated shoreline characterized by long fiords and deep channels. Sea-ice forms in much of Baffin Bay in winter, while icebergs originating from glaciers descending from the Greenland icecap create a constant hazard across the marine region during summer. Although much of the surrounding coastline is precipitous, a significant extent of continental shelf is present in these marine basins, characterized by accumulations of clastic strata, principally of late Mesozoic to Cenozoic age. Recent assessments of petroleum potential of the region have suggested that Baffin Bay may hold 1555 MMbbl of oil and 9.3 TCF of gas (Gautier et al., 2011), while shelf areas of the Labrador Sea may contain recoverable resources of 4.2 TCF of natural gas and 123 MMbbl of oil (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2000). Figure 1 Map of Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea region showing principal geographic features and areas of focus of the contributions in the Special Issue. BI = Bylot Island; DI = Disko Island. While onshore exposures of Mesozoic-Cenozoic strata are extremely rare along the Labrador coast, significant onshore successions are found in the Baffin Bay region on Nuussuaq Peninsula and Disko Island and adjacent areas of West Greenland, and on Bylot Island and adjacent areas of northeast Nunavut. These successions provide accessible outcrops that serve as analogues for stratigraphic sequences preserved in the offshore. While extensive study of the Greenland succession has been undertaken recently, and a comprehensive litho- and biostratigraphic framework for these rocks established (Dam et al., 2009), similar studies of the Canadian side of the Baffin Bay are vintage 1970s. As well, some …