Application of spatial offlap break trajectory analysis of the North Chukchi Trough clinoforms for hydrocarbon evaluation

UDK: 553.98
DOI: 10.24887/0028-2448-2021-2-40-45
Key words: Arctic, shelf, Chukchi Sea, clinoforms, sequence stratigraphy, oil and gas potential
Authors: M.V. Skaryatin (RN-Exploration LLC, RF, Moscow; Gubkin University, RF, Moscow), V.N. Stavitskaya (Scientific Arctic Centre LLC, RF, Moscow), I.V. Mazaeva (RN-Exploration LLC, RF, Moscow), S.A. Zaytseva (RN-Exploration LLC, RF, Moscow), A.A. Batalova (Scientific Arctic Centre LLC, RF, Moscow), R.Kh. Moiseeva (Scientific Arctic Centre LLC, RF, Moscow), E.V. Vinnikovskaya (RN-Exploration LLC, RF, Moscow), E.A. Bulgakova (RN-Exploration LLC, RF, Moscow), N.A. Malyshev (Rosneft Oil Company, RF, Moscow), V.E. Verzhbitskiy (Rosneft Oil Company, RF, Moscow), V.V. Obmetko (Rosneft Oil Company, RF, Moscow), A.A. Borodulin (Rosneft Oil Company, RF, Moscow)

The North Chukchi Trough depositional history was largely written by changes in direction of sedimentary influx. In the Aptian-Cenomanian the sediments were transported from the New Siberia – Chukotka fold and thrust belt highs. The Cenomanian extension led to the transgression. From Cenomanian to middle Paleocene the North Chukchi Trough has been filling while extension was switching to compression. By the middle Paleocene the continental palaeo-shelf was formed and then flooded due to its interior extension and subsidence. Since then and until the middle Eocene the clinothemes were deposited in a highly dissected topography during sea level high stand and greenhouse period. From the middle Eocene until Oligocene the low systems tract deposits were dominantly forming. In the latest Oligocene – beginning of Miocene the warming begun and the sea level was steadily rising, while the clinothems were progressing into the North Chukchi Trough and their heights were increasing. In the beginning of the Pliocene the Bering Strait opening took place along with a vast transgression in the region. On the basis of the sequence stratigraphic analysis, the petroleum system elements were predicted in the North Chukchi Trough sedimentary cover. Fluvial-deltaic sandstone reservoirs are expected in the clinothem topsets close to the offlap break in the Campanian-Danian, Lutetian, and Rupelian-Chattian deposits. Deep-water sandstone reservoirs are developed in the clinothem bottomsets of Campanian-Danian, Lutetian, Rupelian-Chattian, and Langhian deposits. Source rocks are prognosed in the Cenomanian-Turonian, Thanetian, Chattian-Aquitanian, and Pliocene deposits. Traps are interpreted to be mostly stratigraphic, while combined are rare. Among structural traps there are rollover and rootless folds.

References

1. Skaryatin M.V., Stavitskaya V.N., Mazaeva I.V. et al., Spatial offlap break trajectory analysis for stratigraphic framework building of the north Chukchi trough sedimentary cover (In Russ.), Neftyanoe khozyaystvo = Oil Industry, 2020, no. 11, pp. 20–26.

2. Nikishin A.M., Malyshev N.A., Petrov E.I., Geological structure and history of the Arctic Ocean, Houten: EAGE Publications bv, 2015, p. 88.

3. Huffman A.C., Ahlbrandt T.S., Pasternack I. et al., Depositional and sedimentologic factors affecting the reservoir potential of the Cretaceous Nanushuk Group, central North Slope, in: Geology of the Nanushuk Group and related rocks, North Slope Alaska, US Geological Survey Bulletin 1614, 1985, pp. 61–74.

4. Zykov E.A., Gusev E.A., Burial paleovalleys of Chukchi shelf, Problems of Arctic and Antarctic, 2015, V. 3, pp. 66–76.

5. Molenaar C.M., Subsurface correlations and depositional history of the Nanushuk Group and related strata, North Slope, Alaska, in: Geology of the Nanushuk Group and Related Rocks, North Slope, Alaska, US Geological Survey Bulletin 1614, 1985.

6. Houseknecht D.W., Bird K.J., Schenk C.J., Seismic analysis of clinoform depositional sequences and shelf-margin trajectories in Lower Cretaceous (Albian) strata, Alaska North Slope, 2009, no. 21, pp. 644–654.

7. Lease R.O., Houseknecht D., Timing of Cretaceous shelf margins in the Colville basin, Arctic Alaska (abs.), 2017, pp. 51–52.

8. Hubbard R.J., Edrich S.P., Rattey P.R., Geologic evolution and hydrocarbon habitat of the 'Arctic Alaska Microplate', Marine and Petreoleum Geology, 1987, V. 4, pp. 2–34.

9. Snedden J.W., Chengjie L., A compilation of Phanerozoic sea-level change, coastal onlaps and recommended sequence designations, Search and Discovery, 2010, no.  40594.

10. Haq B.U., Hardenbol J., Vail P.R., Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic, Science, 1987, V. 235, pp. 1156–1167.

11. Zachos J., Pagani M., Sloan L., Thomas E, Billups K. Trends, rhythms, and aberrations in global climate 65 Ma to present, Science, 2001, V. 292, Article no. 5517, pp. 686–693.

12. Aleksandrova G.N., Geological evolution of Chauna Depression (North-Eastern Russia) during Paleogene and Neogene. 1. Paleogene (In Russ.), Byulleten' Moskovskogo obshchestva ispytateley prirody. Otdel geologicheskiy, 2016, V. 91, no. 4–5, pp. 148–164.

13. Backman J., Moran K., Arctic coring expedition. Paleoceanographic and tectonic evolution of the central Arctic Ocean, ECORD, 2004, no. 3, p. 4.

14. Brinkhuis H., Schouten S., Collinson M.E. et al., Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean, Nature, 2006, V. 441, pp. 606–609, DOI:10.1038/nature04692

15. Aleksandrova G.N., Geological development of Chauna Depression (Northeastern Russia) in Paleogene and Neogene. 2. Neogene (In Russ.), Byulleten' Moskovskogo obshchestva ispytateley prirody. Otdel geologicheskiy, 2016, V. 91, no. 6, pp. 11–35.

16. Lane L.S., Dietrich J.R., Tertiary structural evolution of the Beaufort Sea-Mackenzie Delta region, Arctic Canada, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology,  1995, V. 43, pp. 293–314.


Attention!
To buy the complete text of article (Russian version a format - PDF) or to read the material which is in open access only the authorized visitors of the website can. .