A petroleum system modeling (PSM) study was performed on the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, offshore eastern Canada, to study the constraints and reliability of the reconstruction of petroleum reservoir filling histories. Petroleum generation and phase behavior were analyzed using phase-predictive compositional kinetic models (PhaseKinetics) determined by pyrolysis of Egret Member source rock samples. Various additional calibration data (well, rock, and fluid data), such as porosity, permeability, temperature (bottom-hole temperature, apatite fission tracks, fluid inclusions), maturity (vitrinite reflectance), and petroleum properties, such as API, gas-oil ratio, formation volume factor, and saturation pressure were integrated into this model.

Different charge scenarios were tested for the effects of open and closed faults in the carrier system to reconstruct the most likely migration pathways for the petroleum that is trapped in the Terra Nova (TN) oil field. The most probable filling history includes charge to the reservoir from a local kitchen and a second kitchen located between Hibernia and TN that was responsible for the long-range migration. In the model, the hydrocarbons migrate from this kitchen in the northwest part of the study area along pathways defined by closed transbasin faults from the north into the field. This new migration concept differs from the traditional explanation based on geochemical measurements only von der Dick et al., 1989), which infers that local generation was solely responsible for filling the TN field. The latter can be disproved based on a simple mass balance calculation.