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.
Stratigraphy and Lithofacies of Lisburne Group Carbonate Rocks (Carboniferous – Permian) in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska Available to Purchase
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Published:January 01, 2001
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CiteCitation
Julie A. Dumoulin, Kenneth J. Bird, 2001. "Stratigraphy and Lithofacies of Lisburne Group Carbonate Rocks (Carboniferous – Permian) in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska", Petroleum Plays and Systems in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska, David W. Houseknecht
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Abstract
Carbonate rocks of the Lisburne Group (Carboniferous-Permian) occur widely throughout northern Alaska. In the NPRA, seismic mapping and well penetrations show that the Lisburne occurs throughout the subsurface except in northernmost NPRA where it is missing by depositional onlap. Lisburne strata encountered in 11 exploratory wells in the northern part of the NPRA are essentially undeformed, consist of limestone and lesser dolostone, sandstone, siltstone, and shale, encompass a wide array of chiefly shallow-water facies, and range in age from Early Mississippian to Permian. Basins and platforms that formed during Mississippian (and possibly Devonian) time greatly affected depositional patterns of the Lisburne. Total thickness of the Lisburne in northern NPRA wells varies from almost 4000 ft in the Ikpikpuk-Umiat Basin to 300 ft on the north edge of the Fish Creek Platform. Lisburne strata of Mississippian age are found in northeastern NPRA, comprise three subunits (lower limestone, middle dolostone, and upper limestone) and are oldest (Osagean) in the Ikpikpuk-Umiat Basin. All wells that penetrated the Lisburne in northern NPRA encountered rocks of Pennsylvanian age; these intervals are mainly limestone and characterized by decameter-scale shallowing-upward sequences. Lisburne sections of prob-able Early-middle Permian age range from thin (≤60 ft) intervals of dolostone and limestone in the Fish Creek Platform area to thick (500-1000 ft) successions of interbedded limestone and siliciclastic sediment in the Ikpikpuk-Umiat Basin and northwestern NPRA. Abundant non-carbonate detritus, primarily quartz and chert with locally notable plagioclase feldspar and metamorphic lithic clasts, occurs throughout the Lisburne Group in northern NPRA. Per-mian strata and a persistent non-carbonate detrital component are also seen in the Lisburne in subsurface beneath the Chukchi Sea (Hanna Trough) to the northwest, but are not found in Lisburne successions elsewhere in Alaska.