Overview of the Cretaceous Evolution of the North-western Barents Sea

Abstract

The northwestern Barents Sea is mostly under explored and covers a large part of the Norwegian and Russian continental margins. Most reservoirs are Carbonifeours to Jurassic in age, and little attention has been paid to the Cretaceous intervals which may hold enormous potential. After the newly discovered liquid petroleum system in the western margin of the Barents Sea (i.e. Skrugard) the link between the conjugate margin offshore North East Greenland and western Barents Sea becomes of particular interest. In addition, the northern boundary of the Cretaceous interval represents a key transition time in the evolution of the northern Arctic region which affected large areas of the Barents Sea and was the time where most of the North American arctic basins developed. Plate tectonic models during this time are quite uncertain due to the lack of constrains, but until the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous, most arctic basins seem to be related. In this presentation, an overview of the Cretaceous evolution of the Arctic, with focus on the plate setting of the northwestern Barents Sea is provided in order to highlight areas that require further analysis to evaluate the petroleum potential.