Abstract Late Jurassic (Late Oxfordian-Early Volgian) sediments exposed across a wide area of East Greenland are dominated by organic-rich mudstones and sandy mudstones and reach a maximum thickness of 500 m. The facies are characterized by parallel-laminated, generally unbioturbated mudstones, in some cases containing thin sandstone laminae. Deposition occurred in an offshore shelf environment, with water depths difficult to constrain. In the northern sections, heterolithic, sandier units occur at the base of the mudstone succession, marking a gradual transition from the underlying shallow-marine sandstones. Mudstones in the south (Milne Land-Jameson Land) are more oil prone, with greater dilution by terrestrially derived Type III/IV kerogen in the north (Wollaston Forland-Kuhn Ø). In both areas there is an improvement in source-rock quality and oil proneness from proximal to distal settings, with the geochemical data in agreement with the palaeogeographical interpretation. In the south, the Late Kimmeridgian to Early Volgian marks the maximum westward transgression of source-rock facies and also represents the richest source interval. In the north there is a decrease in sand content through the Late Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian, although trends in source-rock quality are less clear. Whilst the northern sections are predominantly gas prone, some marginally oil-prone mudstones do occur. The Vøring and Møre basins were situated immediately to the east of Greenland in the Late Jurassic. The presence of a continuous blanket of potential source rocks in East Greenland and the eastward improvement in source-rock properties implies that good quality oil-prone source rocks of Late Jurassic age are likely to be present in the Vøring and Møre basins.

Abstract Studies of the sedimentary succession in Kangerlussuaq, southern East Greenland suggest that a prominent sediment input point existed in the region in the Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene, which was controlled by a major northwest-southeast-oriented fault lineament. The presence of this sediment transfer path is supported by a number of observations. Firstly, the Cretaceous succession thickens towards the fault. This apparent thickening is due to post-depositional erosion of the succession and indicates a Late Maastrichtian-Palaeogene downthrow to the southwest. Secondly, Palaeogene sediments, which underlie the thick plateau basalt succession, are thickest along the axis of the sub-basin lying west of the fault and show south and southeasterly palaeocurrents parallel to the fault in the Christian IV Gletscher lineament. Thirdly, the Palaeogene volcanic succession shows important changes across the fault lineament. To the east of the lineament subaerial plateau basalts rest directly on basement or Palaeogene fluvial sediments, whereas to the west the basal lavas are interbedded with marine sediments and hyaloclastite foreset breccias up to 300 m thick. With a pre-drift position less than 100 km from the present-day Faroe Islands, this new information has an important impact on our understanding of reservoir distribution in the Faroes area. Most models for the Palaeogene infill of the Faroe-Shetland Basin show basinal sands sourced from the Shetland Platform thinning northwestwards. If the Kangerlussuaq region was a major sediment input point then northwestward thickening sand bodies might be anticipated, radically altering the prospectivity of the Palaeogene section in areas towards the Faroe Islands.