New insigts on petroleum systems in the Vøring and Møre basins from regional and multidisciplinary perspectives

A multidisciplinary regional synthesis study has been recently conducted with the objectives to better qualify the petroleum systems that have contributed to the hydrocarbon accumulations in the Vøring and Møre basins. The Upper Jurassic marine Kimmeridge clay and equivalent formations are the most efficient source rocks along the Northern Atlantic continental margins. Although no prolific Cretaceous source rocks have been encountered along the continental margins either in Ireland, Great Britain or Norway, fluid geochemical results indicate the existence of a Cretaceous source rock, particularly in the Norwegian sea. Integrating the geological history of the basins and the geochemistry of the fluids within a 3D petroleum system modelling emphasized the need to discuss the processes of fluid migration. The maturity modelling of a speculative Lower Cretaceous source rock interval tends to show rather highly mature kitchens in the vicinity of petroleum accumulations with lower mature liquids. Three processes can be invoked to reconciliate the modelling with these observations: (1) multiple charges, (2) hoteling and remigration, (3) long migration lag time.