Our Arctic Neighbors: Scientists reveal secrets of Novaya Zemlya

Russian Arctic archipelago is closed to the outside world but an expedition in 1921 brought back samples that hint at hydrocarbons

Sarah Hurst

For Petroleum News

Oil companies may now study geological material from the Russian Arctic archipelago Novaya Zemlya, which is inaccessible because of nuclear pollution and military security.

The material was collected by a group of scientists led by Professor Olaf Holtedahl during an eight-week expedition in 1921. Hans Arne Nakrem from the University of Oslo’s Natural History Museum presented some of the material at the 4th Norway-Russia Arctic Offshore Workshop in Oslo June 18.

Novaya Zemlya is situated between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea and is famous for being the site of 132 nuclear tests. It is still a closed military area.

The Natural History Museum has assembled a consortium, including oil company representatives, to study and fund the collection of sediment and volcanic samples from Novaya Zemlya, mainly of late Paleozoic age. The expedition brought back more than 4,000 samples in 40 crates.

“As … most open sources (and confidential) are written in Russian, it is not easy to get written info about the onshore geology of Novaya Zemlya,” Nakrem told Petroleum News in an e-mail. “I know that CASP (Cambridge Arctic Shelf Program) has co-worked with Russian geologists, and that they have written some reports that are available to buy from CASP. We have described the samples and provided translations of some important works, and definitions of stratigraphic units (mainly Devonian-Permian).”

The material is open for consortium participants for study, or they can suggest studies that will be proprietary first, but later published, Nakrem said.

“Novaya Zemlya forms an onshore data point for the Eastern Barents Shelf (as Svalbard is for the Western part). We think that having access to this knowledge and the collection gives participating companies advantage in their prospecting activities,” he added.

Some of the works produced by the consortium to date include a 1,000-page illustrated atlas of Novaya Zemlya, a study on hydrocarbon sources of possible Cretaceous-Paleogene age, and a study on Jurassic forams of the Shtokman natural gas field. Forams are amoeboid microorganisms.

The study on hydrocarbon sources found that clear indications for hydrocarbons exist, and identified several petroleum charges with huge differences in biodegradation, Nakrem said in his presentation.