Barents Sea Ice Bear 2

Recently acquired 3D seismic data

This survey extends our successful West Loppa and Ice Bear 1 multiclient surveys northward and westward over open acreage.

The survey was designed after carefully mapping existing data, which indicated similar play types and petroleum systems to those found in the greater Bjørnøya Basin area:

Jurassic/Triassic fault block plays likely containing oil and gas, on trend with the Skrugard and Havis discoveries seen in the West Loppa and Ice Bear surveys
Cretaceous stacked submarine fan plays and clinoforms likely containing oil and gas
shallow Tertiary regressive sequence play, containing mostly gas.

The survey covers an area designed to image these plays and terraces as well as Bjornoya and Leirdjupetbounding fault complexes to the east and faults to the west of the Bjornoya Basin, from south-eastern part of Stappen High in the west to the West Loppa terraces and the western part of Bjarmeland platform in the east.

Particularly interesting is the search for more Cretaceous submarine fans and stratigraphic plays as seen in the 2011 Ice Bear 3D survey and adjacent 2D data, as well as tracking and mapping the extension of the Jurassic and Triassic tilted fault blocks that are similar to the recently discovered Skrugard and Havis structures farther south.

Map of Barents Sea 3D Bjørnøya Ice Bear 2 survey.

The Barents Sea Ice Bear 2 multiclient 3D survey is now available.

The Ice Bear 2 survey is designed to better image major boundary faults and facilitate stratigraphic ties with wells to the south.

Geologic highlights

The area of interest lies over the structures and terraces trending to the north as well as the Cretaceous structural and stratigraphic features found toward the Bjørnøya Basin farther westward of the fault complex. These are the principal targets for the survey.

Several terraces can be seen in the east, with attendant bounding faults within the Jurassic section. These have been traced from the Skrugard and Havis terraces in the south through the Ice Bear survey and onward into the Fingerdjupet Basin, where similar basin-edge terraces and fault blocks can be seen. These and the other terrace plays and Cretaceous structures farther west are not easily defined using conventional 2D seismic techniques.

The Jurassic rocks contain the majority of the reservoirs in the Bjørnøya Basin, and the Triassic/Jurassic fault block plays analogous to Skrugard are extremely prospective.

Key highlights

Southern half of the Ice Bear 2 survey acquired using multimeasurment seismic acquisition technology
Northern half of the Ice Bear 2 survey using broadband seismic acquisition
Seamless prestack integration between north and south—a total of 2,628 km2

The first dataset processed presented outstanding illumination of the subsurface structure and is available for E&P companies interested in the Ice Bear area.