Inversion structures as potential petroleum exploration targets on Nuussuaq and northern Disko, onshore West Greenland

Abstract

The onshore Cretaceous–Paleocene Nuussuaq Basin in West Greenland (Fig. 1) has long served as an analogue for offshore petroleum exploration. With the discovery of oil seeps on Disko, Nuussuaq, Ubekendt Ejland and Svartenhuk Halvø in the early 1990s, onshore exploration was also carried out. This eventually resulted in the GRO#3 wildcat exploration well on western Nuussuaq in 1996, which showed several intervals with hydrocarbons (Christiansen et al. 1997). Recent photogrammetric mapping of conspicuous marker horizons within the volcanic sequences of the basin shows that significant compressional structures may have developed in the latest Paleocene on central Nuussuuaq and northern Disko that could be promising potential exploration targets.