Summary Good analogues are keys for better understanding petroleum systems in frontier basins and new plays in proven basins. Recent discoveries have proven Permian carbonate plays (e.g. 7120/1–3 and 7220/11-1) in the Norwegian Barents Sea and Triassic siliciclastic plays (e.g. Goliat, Tornerose and Alke Sør) in the North Atlantic. Permian and Triassic plays have been unsuccessfully tested on the Mid-Norwegian continental shelf (M-NCS), but these plays have recently attracted renewed attention. However, the lack of offshore core data from this interval provides a major obstacle in developing valid play models. On the conjugate East and Northeast Greenland margin, excellent outcrops and a large number of shallow fully cored boreholes document the syn- to post-rift Permian–Triassic interval. Data from this interval in East and Northeast Greenland thus provide important constrains on key elements for new play models on the M-NCS. The presentation will provide observations from East and Northeast Greenland that may help to assist the definition of play models for the Permian–Triassic succession in the M-NCS and place them in a tectono-stratigraphic context.
The Wandel Sea Basin in eastern North Greenland forms the northern continuation of the offshore Danmarkshavn Basin and the conjugate margin to the western Barents Shelf south of Spitsbergen. The Triassic succession of eastern North Greenland, up to 700 m thick, spans the Induan (Dienerian) – Norian. The Triassic sediments rest unconformably on Upper Carboniferous and Upper Permian sediments, and are unconformably overlain by Upper Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous deposits. Based on recent fieldwork in the Wandel Sea Basin, five new and revised Triassic formations are described and included in the Trolle Land Group (revised). The Lower Triassic (Induan) Parish Bjerg Formation (revised) consists of marine sandstones, fluvial conglomerates and sandstones, and muddy flood-plain deposits. It is conformably overlain by Lower Triassic (Dienerian – lower Spathian) offshore mudstones with minor sand-dominated intervals of the Ugleungernes Dal Formation (new). The upper Spathian to Ladinian Dunken Formation (revised) is represented mainly by marine sandstones. A marked erosional unconformity characterises the base of the overlying Upper Triassic (Carnian – Norian) Storekløft Formation (new) composed of marginal marine to marine, massive sandstones and conglomerates as well as cross-bedded and biomottled marine sandstones and minor mudstone units. The Isrand Formation (mainly Middle Triassic) consists of laminated mudstones with minor thin sandstone units that were deposited in slope and basin floor settings in the eastern deeper part of the Wandel Sea Basin in Kronprins Christian Land. The Triassic succession of the Wandel Sea Basin represents a well-constrained shallow shelf to deep shelf / basin floor transect and thus forms an excellent outcrop analogue to the time-equivalent intervals in the western Barents Sea basins and the Danmarkshavn Basin offshore North-East Greenland.
