North Atlantic Region

The North Atlantic margins host a number of important hydrocarbon bearing provinces and are sites for active and in-development carbon capture and underground storage projects. CASP research provides critical data, often collected in challenging environments, to aid both hydrocarbon exploration and, increasingly, the energy transition.

Map of Region

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History of Research

CASP’s origins in 1975 are in the northern part of this region, on the Barents shelf, the gateway to the Arctic. Since then our research and expertise in the North Atlantic region has continued to evolve and expand. In addition to Spitsbergen, extensive fieldwork has been undertaken in East Greenland; other field areas include the Faroes, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Senegambia and Cabo Verde. Our work in the North Atlantic benefits from the wider perspective of projects conducted in Arctic Canada and Arctic Russia. It also forms the main springboard for our research aiding the energy transition.

Key Geological Topics Covered

Multiple topics have been covered in this core area for CASP research. They relate to improving our understanding of its tectonic evolution, stratigraphic development and hydrocarbon systems. Source-to-sink and integrated biostratigraphic studies form important additional components. As elsewhere, CASP research continues to combine multidisciplinary studies of regions and individual sedimentary basins, based on a combination of original fieldwork, analytical studies, and critical synthesis of data and literature. Active super-regional and generic studies include the investigation of the geological evolution of the Mauritanian to Porcupine basins on the eastern side of the Atlantic and the Baltimore Canyon Trough to Orphan basins on the western side of the Atlantic, and the impact of flood basalts on hydrocarbon systems. Details of other, more geographically restricted, research areas can be found on our East Greenland and Mid-Norway, SE Greenland and Faroe-Shetland Islands  and Western Barents Shelf sub-region pages.

Active Research Projects

Most Recent Reports

Interactive Map