Arctic Alaska Basin, Hanna Trough and Beaufortian Rifted Margin Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Elements

The Arctic Alaska Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element (AA CTSE) as defined for this volume comprises Mississippian to Lower Cretaceous strata beneath the Alaska North Slope and the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas of the Arctic Ocean. The AA CTSE rests on Devonian and older sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks, considered economic basement for petroleum, and is overlain by Cretaceous to Cenozoic syntectonic strata deposited in the foreland of the Chukotka and Brooks Range orogens. The Mississippian – Triassic part of the AA CTSE is divided into a fold-and-thrust belt in the south and a relatively undeformed platform in the north. The Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous part of the AA CTSE is divided into synrift basins in the north and rift-shoulder deposits in the south. The AA CTSE includes oil-prone source rocks in the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous and proven reservoir rocks spanning the Mississippian to Lower Cretaceous. Much of the central part of the AA CTSE lies in the oil window whereas the northern and southern parts are mainly in the gas window. Known hydrocarbon accumulations in the AA CTSE total more than 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent and yet-to-find estimates suggest a similar volume remains to be discovered