The majority of the source and reservoir rocks for the hydrocarbons in North Sea and the
North West Shelf are Jurassic (200–146 Ma) in age. In both the exploration and production
phases, the study of palynology, especially fossil dinoflagellate cysts, is one of the principal
techniques used in subdividing the hydrocarbon-bearing successions. High-resolution zonal
schemes have been developed for both these areas, and have been routinely applied for
around thirty years. The BGS has been a key player in the formulation and refinement of
the standard Jurassic scheme and we have shown that integrated studies using these
microfossils can resolve interregional geological problems
