U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2008–3014

May 2008 Printed on recycled paper

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the 

West Greenland–East Canada Province, 2008

Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed 

the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the West Greenland–

East Canada Province as part of the USGS Circum-Arctic Oil 

and Gas Resource Appraisal effort. The West Greenland–East 

Canada Province is essentially the offshore area between west 

Greenland and east Canada and includes Baffin Bay, Davis 

Strait, Lancaster Sound, and Nares Strait west of and including Kane Basin (fig. 1). The tectonic evolution of the West 

Greenland–East Canada Province led to the formation of several 

major structural domains that are the geologic basis for the five 

assessment units (AU) defined in this study (fig. 1). The five 

AUs encompass the entire province. Each AU was assessed in 

its entirety for undiscovered, technically recoverable (assuming 

absence of sea ice) oil and gas resources, but the assessment 

results reported here are only for those portions of each AU that 

are north of the Arctic Circle, as that latitude defines the area of 

the Circum-Arctic oil and gas assessment.

Geologic Definition of Assessment Units

The tectonic evolution of the West Greenland–East Canada 

province was complex and included (1) at least two phases of 

Cretaceous rifting and thermal subsidence between west Greenland and Canada; (2) counterclockwise rotation of Greenland 

driven largely by adjacent plate movements and the thermal 

effects of mantle plumes; (3) the development of the Ungava 

transform fault zone concomitant with the opening of Baffin 

Bay basin and the Labrador Sea; and (4) compression in the 

northern part of the province (Eurekan Orogeny) as Greenland 

rotated and collided with Canada in the Paleogene (Harrison 

and others, 1999; Funck and others, 2007). The AUs reflect this 

geologic history. The Eurekan Structures AU (AU-1, fig. 1) is 

characterized by inverted structures developed in the northern 

part of the province during the Eurekan Orogeny. The Northwest Greenland Rifted Margin AU (AU-2, fig. 1) and the Northeast Canada Rifted Margin AU (AU-3, fig. 1) encompass the 

rifted, conjugate continental margins. The Baffin Bay Basin AU 

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. 

Geological Survey estimated a mean of 7.3 billion barrels 

of oil and a mean of 52 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered 

natural gas in the West Greenland–East Canada Province 

north of the Arctic Circle.

(AU-4, fig. 1) reflects the oceanic(?) part of Baffin Bay where 

there is greater than 8 km of sediment. The Greater Ungava 

Fault Zone AU (AU-5, fig. 1) includes strike-slip structures 

along a broad zone of the Ungava transform fault.

The USGS defined a Mesozoic-Cenozoic Composite Total 

Petroleum System (TPS) in the West Greenland–East Canada 

Province; the five AUs are included within this TPS. Several 

petroleum source rocks are postulated to be present, including 

possible source rocks within Ordovician, Lower and Upper 

Cretaceous, and Paleogene stratigraphic intervals (BojesenKoefoed and others, 1999, 2004).

Figure 1. The West Greenland–East Canada Province (tan line) 

contains Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Lancaster Sound, and Nares Strait 

west of and including Kane Basin. Five assessment units (red lines) 

were defined in this study: AU-1, Eurekan Structures AU; AU-2, 

Northwest Greenland Rifted Margin AU; AU-3, Northeast Canada 

Rifted Margin AU; AU-4, Baffin Bay Basin AU; AU-5, Greater Ungava 

Fault Zone AU. Dashed yellow lines represent portions of those AUs 

that extend south of the Arctic Circle.

GREENLAND

CANADA

Labrador Sea

Baffin 

Bay

Davis

Strait

Labrador

Baffin

Island

Ellesmere

Island Nares Strait

Hudson

Strait

Ungava

Bay

Arctic Circle

AU-1

AU-2

 AU 

-2

AU-4

 AU -5

AU 

-3

Lancaster

Sound

Kane

Basin

110° 100° 90° 80° 70° 60° 50° 40° 30° 20°

70°

65°

60°

55° 0 100 200 Miles
Resource Summary

The USGS assessed undiscovered technically recoverable conventional oil and gas resources in the five AUs within the MesozoicCenozoic TPS, but the resource estimates reported here are only for those portions of the AUs that are north of the Arctic Circle (table 1). 

For conventional resources in the West Greenland–East Canada Province, the estimated means were 7,275 million barrels of oil (MMBO), 

51,816 billion cubic feet of natural gas (BCFG), and 1,152 million barrels of natural-gas liquids (MMBNGL). The assessment indicates 

that about half of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the province are estimated to be in the rifted margin AUs (table 1).

West Greenland–East Canada Province 

Assessment Team: 

Christopher J. Schenk, Kenneth J. Bird, Philip J. Brown II, 

Ronald R. Charpentier, Donald L. Gautier, David W. Houseknecht, 

Timothy R. Klett, Mark J. Pawlewicz, Anjana Shah, and

Marilyn E. Tennyson.

References

Bojesen-Koefoed, J.A., Christiansen, F.G., Nytoft, H.P., and 

Pedersen, A.K., 1999, Oil seepage onshore West Greenland—

Evidence of multiple source rocks and oil mixing, in Fleet, 

A.J., and Boldy, S.A.R., eds., Petroleum geology of northwest Europe. Proceedings of the 5th Conference: Geological 

Society of London, p. 305–314.

Bojesen-Koefoed, J.A., Nytoft, H.P., and Christiansen, F.G., 

2004, Age of oils in West Greenland—Was there a Mesozoic 

seaway between Greenland and Canada?: Geological Survey 

of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin, v. 4, p. 49–52.

Funck, T., Jackson, H.R., Louden, K.E., and Klingelhofer, F., 

2007, Seismic study of the transform-rifted margin in Davis 

Strait between Baffin Island (Canada) and Greenland—What 

happens when a plume meets a transform: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 112, B04402, 22 p.

Harrison, J.C., Mayr, U., McNeil, D.H., Sweet, A.R., McIntyre, 

D.J., Eberle, J.J., Harington, C.R., Chalmers, J.A., Dam, 

G., and Nohr-Hansen, H., 1999, Correlation of Cenozoic 

sequences of the Canadian Arctic region and Greenland—

Implications for the tectonic history of northern North 

America: Canadian Petroleum Geology Bulletin, v. 47, no. 3, 

p. 223–254.

For Further Information

Assessment results are available at the USGS Energy Program 

website, http://energy.usgs.gov/arctic, or contact Donald L. Gautier, 

Task Leader for the USGS Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource 

Appraisal (gautier@usgs.gov).

Total Petroleum Systems 

(TPS) 

and Assessment Units (AU)

AU

Probability

Field 

Type

Total Undiscovered Resources

Oil (MMBO) Gas (BCFG) NGL (MMBNGL)

F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean

Mesozoic-Cenozoic Composite TPS

Eurekan Structures AU 0.25

Oil 0 0 6,626 1,133 0 0 10,490 1,784 0 0 285 48

Gas 0 0 39,428 6,806 0 0 1,055 181

Northwest Greenland Rifted 

Margin AU 0.50

Oil 0 260 10,900 2,746 0 157 10,488 2,547 0 4 237 57

Gas 0 1,090 61,086 15,251 0 25 1,386 339

Northeast Canada Rifted 

Margin AU 0.50

Oil 0 0 3,470 850 0 0 3,318 787 0 0 76 18

Gas 0 0 17,577 4,374 0 0 418 97

Baffin Bay Basin AU 0.28

Oil 0 0 8,470 1,555 0 0 16,128 2,934 0 0 244 44

Gas 0 0 50,598 9,338 0 0 1,126 206

Greater Ungava Fault Zone AU 0.30

Oil 0 0 5,037 991 0 0 11,105 2,143 0 0 195 38

Gas 0 0 29,950 5,852 0 0 635 124

Total Conventional

 Resources 7,275 51,816 1,152

[MMBO, million barrels of oil. BCFG, billion cubic feet of gas. MMBNGL, million barrels of natural gas liquids. Results shown are fully risked estimates. For gas accumulations, 

all liquids are included as NGL (natural gas liquids). Undiscovered gas resources are the sum of nonassociated and associated gas. F95 represents a 95 percent chance of at 

least the amount tabulated; other fractiles are defined similarly. AU probability is the chance of at least one accumulation of minimum size within the AU. TPS, total petroleum 

system; AU, assessment unit. Gray shading indicates not applicable]

Table 1. West Greenland-East Canada Province assessment results.