PANORAMA: Petroleum Assessment of the Arctic North Atlantic and Adjacent Marine Areas
Country / Region: Greenland Sea, Barents Sea
Begin of project: March 1, 2013
End of project: March 31, 2022
Status of project: March 31, 2022
With land-based and marine research in the Arctic, BGR contributes to the understanding of the geological evolution of the circum-Arctic continental margins since five decades
Source: BGR
The PANORAMA project aims to contribute to the clarification of open questions in key areas of the European Arctic Sea and adjacent regions. The research program is aimed at using geological, organic-geochemical, and geophysical methods to obtain the necessary information on the subsurface structures of the northern North Atlantic as well as the northern Barents Sea and the East Greenland shelf in order to reconstruct the depositional history of sediments on the seafloor. Geomicrobiological methods have been used to investigate previously largely unknown hydrocarbon-degrading microbial communities in the sediments of this region. Knowledge of the microbial processes can help to assess the possible consequences for the ecosystem of the use of Arctic hydrocarbons.
Through applied research, BGR contributes to the creation of a basis for a knowledge-based assessment of the opportunities and environmental risks arising from the possible exploitation of energy resources from the marine Arctic region. The information obtained serves as an advisory basis for policy makers, industry, and the public.
A potential estimate of recoverable hydrocarbons was obtained using basin modeling for the northern Barents Sea and the northeastern continental margin of Greenland. Our estimates of these underexplored frontier areas are based on a newly developed methodology that differs from previous potential estimates by the U.S. and Norwegian geological services but results in similar magnitudes of hydrocarbons. Environmental studies are based on microbiological analyses of sediment samples showing unique microbiological communities in different Arctic regions, which have been recorded in a genetic database (rRNA). The ability to degrade hydrocarbons was investigated in laboratory experiments.
The work performed and diverse results of the project, including scientific publications produced, are documented in the final report (low resolution, 9 MB or full resolution, 125 MB).
Project contributions:
- Initial situation and open questions (2013)
- Potential hydrocarbon Source Rocks of the Barents Sea (including Svalbard) and the East-Greenland-Shelf – Geochemical investigations associated with the Projects PANORAMA and CASE (2016)
- Resource-political situation in the Arctic (2014)
- Use of fossil marine resources in the Arctic – chances and risks (2015)
Literature:
- Berglar, K., Bahr, A., Blumenberg, M., Ehrhardt, A., Franke, D., Klitzke, P., Krueger, M., Lutz, R., Reinhardt, L., Schnabel, M., Schwalenberg, K., Tegeler, R. & Weniger, P. (2022): Petroleum potential of the northern Barents Sea and the Northeast Greenland margin including aspects of oil spill related environmental risks of petroleum production in the Arctic. - Final report of project PANORAMA, Berglar, K., Engels, M., Barckhausen, U. & Pletsch, T. (Eds.): 327 pp.; BGR Hannover, Germany. DOI: 10.25928/bgr_panorama
- The Expedition PS115/1 of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN to the Greenland Sea and Wandel Sea in 2018 (PDF, 33 MB)
- MARIA S. MERIAN-Berichte, SEGMENT. Cruise Report MSM67, Reykjavik (IC) - Longyearbyen (SV) 31.8.2017 - 04.10.2017 (PDF, 27 MB)
- Cruise Report BGR15-2 Project: PANORAMA-2 Geophysics, Geology and Geomicrobiology. RV OGS EXPLORA 15. August – 20. September 2015 Tromsø – Longyearbyen (PDF, 20 MB)
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