North Slope, Alaska: Source rock distribution, richness, thermal maturity, and petroleum charge

Chapter 1 An overview of the petroleum geology of the Arctic

“…1.3), located between the landmasses of North America and Eurasia. The Triassic Shublik formation has generated most of the discovered oil in northern Alaska (Peters et al 2006), including most of the oil in the geochemically mixed, supergiant, Prudhoe Bay Field, the largest oil field north of the Arctic Circle. In the Sverdrup Basin, most if not all of the known petroleum accumulations are believed to be sourced from Middle to Late Triassic strata (Schei Point Group), with lesser sources in rocks of Early and Late Jurassic age (Brooks et al 1992).…”

“…Upper Jurassic strata may also have been the source for hydrocarbons in other Siberian Basins, including the YeniseyKhatanga Basin and as far east as the Laptev Sea. Significant oil and gas volumes in northern Alaska, including part of the mixed petroleum deposits in the Prudhoe Bay Field were derived from Upper Jurassic marine strata of the Kingak Shale (Peters et al 2006).…”

“…Cretaceous and Cenozoic marine shales are known to have sourced petroleum systems in northern Alaska (Peters et al 2006) and source rocks of Palaeogene and Cretaceous ages generated the oil and gas accumulations in the Mackenzie Delta. Marine strata of Cretaceous age are postulated to be important, but as yet untested, source rocks in the Alaskan Chukchi Sea.…”

Preliminary prediction and evaluation on source rock in low exploration basin—A case study from the northeast depression, South Yellow Sea basin, East China

“…Basin modeling, also called petroleum system modeling or numerical simulation, is now used routinely in petroleum exploration and resource assessment (Peters et al, 2006;Higley et al, 2005;Pitman et al, 2004). Previous studies suggested that basin modeling is an efficient technique for maturity prediction of source rock in low exploration activity areas (Schwarzer and Litfke, 2007;Justwan et al, 2006;Keym et al, 2006;Peters et al, 2006;Shi, 1994).…”

“…Previous studies suggested that basin modeling is an efficient technique for maturity prediction of source rock in low exploration activity areas (Schwarzer and Litfke, 2007;Justwan et al, 2006;Keym et al, 2006;Peters et al, 2006;Shi, 1994). Vitrinite reflectance (R o ) is the most important and is a wide application indicator to evaluate source rock maturity.…”