Paper Summary

Large areas of the south western Barents Sea remain unexplored. An integrated approach to the understanding of the south western Barents Sea is presented in order to determine prospectivity and risk in areas of sparse well control. Only 76 wells have been drilled in the south western Barents Sea and nearly half of those are inside the Hammerfest basin. The total area of the south western Barents Sea that is available for licence is approximately 250,000km2. This method of integrated evaluation will help to determine more accurately potential resources and risk of leads and prospects. The most accurate structure maps are dependent upon state-of-the-art seismic data for imaging the deepest formations and accurately delineating fault planes and salt diapirs in structurally complex regions. A grid of long offset data has been shot across the south western Barents Sea and provides the latest insight into structure and detailed seismic stratigraphy of formations.