THE CENTRAL AREA OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN: SEISMOSTRATIGRAPHY AND BACKGROUND OF OIL AND GAS

The main tectonic elements of the Central Arctic Region are the Lomonosov Ridge and the Mendeleev Uplift, separated by the Podvodnikov and Makarov basins, from West to the adjacent Lomonosov Ridge Amundsen basin. In the Aptian-Cenozoic sedimentary cover of the region five seismostratigraphic complexes are distinguished, for which types and thermal maturity of the organic matter have been reconstructed. The reconstruction is based on seismic profiling data, underwater drilling, study of samples seafloor rocks, seismic velocities analysis and oil and gas prospects assessment of neighboring Arctic shelves. In the predominantly terrigenous section of the cover, there is a seismostratigraphic complex of the Upper Paleocene-Eocene with significant role of biochemistry material in its lithological composition. Carbonaceoussiliceous and carbonaceous-siliceous-clayey horizons with marine organic matter, relevant protocatagenesisearly mesocatagenesis, are distributed in this complex. Structural features of organic matter, inherited from the diatom source,suggest to the generation of immature naphthenic oils. Deposits of the Upper Cretaceous and Upper Paleocene-Eocene complexes containing organic matter on gradations of lateprotocatagenesis-mesocatagenesis fall into the zone of the oil window. With a considerable prevalence of carbonaceous-siliceous-clayey horizons in the Upper Paleocene-Eocene this zone covers a depth interval of 1.0-3.8 km, with their rare occurrence or absence in the interval 1.8-3.8 km. Hydrocarbon kitchens are localized in depocentre of the basins and the foots of the slopes of the uplifts with maximum thickness of the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene sediments. In the first case there are hydrocarbons mainly in the oil phase, in the second – the gas phase. Potentially oil and gas bearing sites are projected in areas adjacent to the major basement highs, separating the Amundsen, Podvodnikov and Makarov basins from small depressions at the foot of the slopes of the Lomonosov Ridge and the Mendeleev Rise. Lithological and stratigraphic traps are predicted in the marked areas in the places, where the collector horizons of the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene are wedged out. Anticline traps could form at the tops of the highs, covered with Neogene sediments. Such an arrangement of accumulating beds favors the appearance of migratory flows of hydrocarbons from generating sites localized both in the basins and in the uplift slopes. Cenozoic granular reservoirs have good porosity and permeability, and carbon Eocene diatomites can be not only qualitative source rocks, but also possess the properties of a porous authigenic oil reservoir.

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