Petroleum Plays and Systems in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska

The North Slope of Alaska has re-emerged as one of the most active exploration provinces in the United States. Recent exploration successes, economic benefits of applying innovative exploration and production technologies, evolving industry demographics, rising oil and natural gas prices, and the anticipation that North Slope natural gas resources may become economically viable and marketable through a planned pipeline have stimulated a renewed intensity in leasing and exploration activity. The focus of NPRA exploration appears to include both structural and stratigraphic objectives that may include strata spanning much of the stratigraphic column. The purpose of the core workshop is to prove an opportunity to examine a large collection of core from all major stratigraphic units present in NPRA. The chapters in this volume provide a current perspective on the genesis and petroleum potential of each stratigraphic interval.
Shublik Formation Lithofacies, Environments, and Sequence Stratigraphy, Arctic Alaska, U.S.A. Available to Purchase
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Published:January 01, 2001
Abstract
The Shublik Formation (Triassic, North Slope, Alaska) is an organic-, phosphate-, and glauconite-rich unit with abundant fossils of marine vertebrates and mollusks. Five lithofacies, generalized around significant chemical constituents or lack thereof, are identified in the Shublik Formation:
nonglauconitic sandstone - thin- to medium-bedded, fine, quartzose, calcareous to noncalcareous sandstone or silty to muddy sandstone, fossiliferous in places;
glauconitic - thin- to medium-bedded, fine, quartzose sandstone, muddy sandstone, or siltstone containing 10% to > 50% glauconite grains
phosphatic - thin- to medium-bedded siltstone or sandstone or laminated, black silty limestone or limestone containing phosphate nodules; and
organic-rich - laminated, black limestone, marl, and mudstone
nonphosphatic, nonorganic-rich limestone - bioclastic wackestone, or argillaceous grainstone and packstone or graded grainstone and packstone.
Ichnofabrics provide evidence of fluctuating oxygen levels within the facies, especially the nonglauconitic sandstone and glauconitic facies. The organic-rich facies and, to a lesser extent, the phosphatic facies contain abundant, pristine, disarticulated shells of the clam Halobia. The lithofacies, ichnofabrics, and taphonomy are interpreted to be related to onshore-offshore gradients in biologic productivity and redox conditions. The Shublik Formation is interpreted as an upwelling-zone deposit formed on a shallow shelf.
The Shublik Formation in the Prudhoe Bay region is interpreted to comprise three sequences; these have been extended to outcrop but not to cores in the National Petroleum Reserve. Facies stacking patterns indicate that siliclastic facies are most common during lowstand and transgression, organic-rich facies are characteristic of transgression, and carbonate-rich facies are more prevalent during highstand. Phosphatic facies occur along transgressive and maximum flooding surfaces and are thus integral to subdividing sequences into systems tracts.