Geology and petroleum potential of the West Greenland-East Canada Province

Abstract

The US Geological Survey (USGS) assessed the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources of the West Greenland–East Canada Province as part of the USGS Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal programme. The province lies in the offshore area between western Greenland and eastern Canada and includes Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Lancaster Sound and Nares Strait west of and including part of Kane Basin. A series of major tectonic events led to the formation of several distinct structural domains that are the geological basis for defining five assessment units (AU) in the province, all of which are within the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Composite Petroleum System. Potential petroleum source rocks include strata of Ordovician, Lower and Upper Cretaceous, and Palaeogene ages. The five AUs defined for this study – the Eurekan Structures AU, NW Greenland Rifted Margin AU, NE Canada Rifted Margin AU, Baffin Bay Basin AU and the Greater Ungava Fault Zone AU – encompass the entire province and were assessed for undiscovered technically recoverable resources. The mean volumes of undiscovered resources for the West Greenland–East Canada Province are 10.7×10 9 barrels of oil, 75×10 12 cubic feet of gas, and 1.7×10 9 barrels of natural gas liquids. For the part of the province that is north of the Arctic Circle, the estimated mean volumes of these undiscovered resources are 7.3×10 9 barrels of oil, 52×10 12 cubic feet of natural gas, and 1.1×10 9 barrels of natural gas liquids.