The boutique North Barents Basin Province (#1060) is north of South Barents, but separated from it geographically by the subtle Ludlov Saddle (fig. 2a). Due north of North Barents is the Grumant Uplift, containing the islands of Franz Josef Land. The marine area to the west of both these basins includes the Central Barents Platform of Norway, Russia, and disputed Russian-Norwegian waters (fig. 2b). North Barents is located between longitude 42° and 57° E. and between latitude 75.5° and 79° N., covering approximately 106,500 km². It contains 18 km of sedimentary fill. 

All water depths in both provinces are <350 km. The eastern Barents crustal block has drifted continuously northward since Cambrian time when it was in an equatorial position (Ustritskiy, 1991). Both basins are characterized by gravity maxima and low-intensity magnetic signatures (Bogolepov and others, 1992). Several solitary producing fields near but outside the South Barents Province outline are of the same total petroleum system and are included in the statistical treatment of field sizes and numbers. Those fields include N. Kildinskoye, Ludlovskoye, Tarkskoye, and Peschanoozer (fig. 3).

Geologic setting
The tectonic history of the Euro-Asian Arctic is anchored by the Early Proterozoic (Karelian) orogeny, which established the stable Russian-European platform adjacent to the Archean Baltic Shield (Alsgaard, 1993; Dore, 1995; Bogdanov and others, 1996). Accreted and superimposed, latest Proterozoic (Baikalian) orogenic trends are oriented NW-SE, exemplified by the Kanin-Timan Ridge and the Kola Monocline southwest of the Timan-Pechora and Barents Provinces (fig. 1). Baikalian basement comprises the western and central Timan-Pechora Basin Province and possibly part of the South Barents Basin Province (Bogdanov and others, 1996; Gramberg, 1998). Karelian (or younger, Grenvillian) basement is likely present in more northern regions.

The Early Paleozoic Caledonian orogeny largely closed the Cambrian Iapetus (old Atlantic) Ocean and consolidated the Laurentia (Greenland/North America) and Baltic (Euro-Russian) continental plates, primarily impacting the more western Barents Sea but perhaps also establishing tectonic trends northeastward into at least part of the North Barents Basin. A remnant of the old Iapetus oceanic basin could have been preserved in this eastern Barents region, according to some plate tectonic models (Ustritskiy, 1991). 

Late Paleozoic (Devonian and younger) rifting and subsequent continental collision were recorded in the carbonate-to-siliciclastic stratigraphic succession along the southern margins of the South Barents Basin. Collisions of the Laurentia/Baltic plate with the West Siberian plate (Permo-Triassic "Uralian" orogeny and Early Jurassic "Early Kimmerian" orogeny) tectonically defined the eastern boundaries of the Barents and Timan-Pechora Provinces by creating the Ural and Novaya Zemlya foldbelts (fig. 1) that supplied siliciclastic sediments westward to the foredeeps of the eastern Barents Sea and the Timan-Pechora Basin. Eastern Barents subsidence and sedimentation rates were probably greatest during latest Permian and Triassic times (Ostisty and Cheredeev, 1993) (fig. 2a). The Ludlov Saddle separating the South and North Barents Basins is Mesozoic in age, possibly as old as Triassic, and contains east-west trending anticlines and synclines.

The exact origin of the mostly Mesozoic eastern Barents basins and the age of the basin floors are uncertain. Remnant Cambrian (Iapetus) ocean floor might be present locally (Ustritskiy, 1991). Similar basins exist northeastward within the North Kara Sea. Gramberg and others (1998) propose a Late Permian-Triassic rifting origin from mantle diapirism, which explains the gravity maxima. Crust of the basin centers is thin and oceanic, with basalts of presumed Late Paleozoic age and a typical Moho depth of 30 km (fig. 2b). In contrast, surrounding platform areas contain additional continental crust to 15 km in thickness above the basalts, with the Moho at an average depth of 45 km. East Barents magnetic rocks are known or postulated to exist in the basement, locally within Devonian carbonates, in the basin centers as sills within Triassic siliciclastics, and in the northern regions of Franz Josef Land and Svalbard within Jurassic through Early Cretaceous rocks.

Cenozoic uplift associated with the opening of the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean resulted in regional erosion ranging from probably hundreds of meters to several kilometers over the entire Barents Sea (Nyland and others, 1992; Dore, 1995). Late Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks are generally thin to absent from the eastern Barents region.

Exploration history
Bathymetric studies, bottom samples and earliest seismic surveys in the Barents Sea were acquired during the 1960s, followed in the 1970s by more detailed seismic exploration and the acquisition of gravity and aeromagnetic data to nearly latitude 80° N. Some island drilling was accomplished during the 1970s, with Franz Josef Land and Svalbard containing wells to 3-km-depths. The first offshore location was tested in 1982/1983 at Murmansk field in the southern South Barents Basin.

More than 250,000 km of eastern Barents seismic data have been acquired with a typical 1-6 km spacing in the South Barents Basin and a typical 20-40 km spacing in the North Barents Basin (Johansen and others, 1993; Malovitsky and Matirossyan, 1995). At least 30 major structures have been identified.

The deepest regional well was drilled to a depth of 4524 m in Lower Triassic rocks within the central South Barents Basin (Petroconsultants, 1996). Carboniferous limestones are the oldest rocks penetrated at 4005 m total depth in a well just east of these provinces on the Novaya Zemlya monocline (fig. 1).