Geologic Preconditions for Oil and Gas Possibilities in Soviet Arctic: ABSTRACT

Abstract

The Soviet Arctic, including the continental shelf, occupies an area of about a third of the entire Soviet Union. Within this area, major platform structures with a thick sedimentary mantle are developed. These are the West Siberian and Pechora plates and the Siberian, Barents-Kara, and Hyperborean platforms. All of the discovered oil and gas areas and the most prospective territories and shelves are related to these platforms. Areas favorable for petroleum exploration comprise more than 60-70% of this area. The largest of these is the West Siberian oil and gas basin, east of the Urals. In the Arctic part of the West End_Page 2482------------------------------ Siberian province the largest gas field in the world was discovered (Urengoy). Productive and prospective strata are known to range through the whole Jurassic and Upper Cretaceous sections. Prospective oil and gas structures extend offshore into the southern part of the Kara Sea shelf. In the Timan-Pechora area west of the Polar Urals-Pay-Khoy, several oil and gas fields have been discovered. Productive and prospective zones are in the middle and upper Paleozoic, and possibly in the Mesozoic. Structures favorable for oil and gas accumulation extend offshore into the southern part of the Barents Sea shelf. The great petroleum possibilities of the northern part of the Siberian platform and of the bordering Mesozoic troughs are confirmed by the discovery of gas fields in the western part of the Yenisey-Khatanga trough and of oil fields in the eastern part of the trough. In addition a large bitumen (tar) field is near the southern border of the Lena-Anabar trough, and abundant oil and bitumen shows occur through the whole section from the upper Precambrian through the Lower Cretaceous. The Mesozoic-Cenozoic troughs and depressions of the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma, Koryak-Kamchatka, and Chukotsk areas in the northeastern part of the USSR also are prospective for oil and gas. The high estimate of the oil and gas possibilities for the shelf seas is based on the favorable geologic and geophysical facts from the Soviet Arctic islands and shelves. The most prospective are structures within the Barents-Kara platform, the offshore part of the West Siberian basin, the Chukotsk-East Siberian troughs, the southern Chukotsk and southern Laptev troughs, and the Wrangel rise. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2483------------