Preliminary analysis of the hydrocarbon source rock potential of central and western North Greenland

Abstract

During the 1984 field season potential hydrocarbon source rocks were studied in central and western North Greenland. Samples from most lithostratigraphic units were collected from Freuchen Land in the north-east to Washington Land in the south-west. Preliminary results from LECO, Rock-Eval and palynofacies analyses suggest that some intervals in the Cambrian shelf sequence and in the Ordovician and Silurian trough sequence have enough organic matter to qualify as source rocks. Most of the trough sequence is, however, thermally postrnature with respect to oil generation and only the Cambrian Brønlund Fjord Group is expected to have been the source of the oil accumulations in the subsurface.