PETROLEUM SYSTEMS MODELING IN THE GERMAN NORTH SEA

Germanys North Sea sector (German Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ) covers an area of around 35,000 km². Despite about 80 exploration wells which were drilled since 1964 oil and gas is produced from only two fields: The Mittelplate oil field in the Wadden Sea and the gas field A6/B4 in the northwestern part of the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at the Danish Border, respectively. At BGR we are currently mapping the northwestern area, the so-called “Entenschnabel”. Once finished it will be included in the 3D model of the central German North Sea forming one homogenous geological model of the German EEZ. This model serves as a structural input for various 1D, 2D and 3D petroleum system models, which investigate the evolution of the German North Sea and the key petroleum system elements. We will present the present status of the project including 1D models and 2D models of the central German North Sea.The final 3D model will be publically available and can be used by industry and academia for investigations of e.g. license areas supplemented by proprietary data or tests of new kinetic data sets in a geological model. This work is carried out within the framework of the GPDN project (Geopotenzial Deutsche Nordsee), a joint project of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), the State Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology (Lower Saxony, LBEG) and the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH) together with industry and academic partners.