“…It has been established that rifting ceased in the northern North Sea during the Volgian (Johnson, 1975;Faerseth et al, 1995;Faerseth and Ravnås, 1998;Faerseth and Lien, 2002;Zachariah et al, 2009). The basin then underwent post-rift thermal subsidence (Badley et al, 1984;Gabrielsen et al, 1990;Prosser, 1993;Nøttvedt et al, 1995;Gabrielsen et al, 2001) and was affected by relative changes in sealevel, in association with the far-reached effects of renewed North Atlantic rifting and the Austrian Orogeny during the Aptian (Skibeli et al, 1995;Brekke et al, 2001;Bugge et al, 2001;Kjennerud et al, 2001;Kyrkjebø et al, 2001;Copestake et al, 2003;Oakman 2005). Fig.…”