Energy Resources FY11 project descriptions

Abstract

Alaska's North Slope remains one of the most promising onshore oil and gas provinces in all of North America. The Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) continues its leadership role in furthering the geologic understanding of this petroleum system, primarily through investigations of rocks exposed in the foothills of the northern Brooks Range. This program was developed in response to the need for high quality, publicly available geologic data to stimulate exploration for hydrocarbons in northern Alaska. The cost of this program is shared by major and independent oil and gas companies. While directed by DGGS, this research effort is a multiagency collaboration that includes the Alaska Division of Oil & Gas (DOG), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Alaska, and others. Our work over the last several years has focused on State lands in the central North Slope where we can tie surface geologic observations with the higher density and quality of subsurface data (wells and seismic). During the 2010 field season, the program shifted westward to the Umiat area (fig. 1), a region that has undergone significant exploration activity in recent years. We conducted reconnaissance mapping in anticipation of a multi-year project in the area. In addition we continued our emphasis on key reservoir and source rock intervals, providing new constraints on the depositional history and correlation of units. Our stratigraphic work focused particularly on potential reservoir rocks of the Tuluvak and Schrader Bluff Formations, and included the discovery of an oil-stained interval in the uppermost Seabee Formation. These detailed outcrop observations are being integrated with available subsurface data to arrive at an improved understanding of how this hydrocarbon-rich basin evolved. During the spring of 2010, we organized a successful twoday DNR Technical Review Meeting in Anchorage to summarize our recent work and share interim results relevant to oil and gas exploration. Much of the work presented at this meeting will be published through DGGS in the upcoming year, including several geologic maps (see p. 35) and a collection of papers summarizing topical structural and stratigraphic studies. Location map of northern Alaska and expanded view of state lands of the east-central North Slope. Cross section is simplified from Decker (2007).