Khatanga-Vilyui Upper Paleozoic-Mesozoic Petroleum Province

Abstract

The Khatanga-Vilyui province, which is in the northern and northeastern Siberian platform, occupies a vast (about 700,000 km{sup 2}) area of marginal depressions in a modern structure of which a number of heterogeneous tectonic elements are isolated. Using tectonic data, five oil and gas regions of the province have been distinguished; the Yenisei-Khatange, Anabar-Khatanga, lena-Anabar, Fore-Verkhoyansk, and Vilyui petroleum regions. The petroleum potential of the Khatanga-Vilyui province is associated with terrigenous subaqueous deposits of late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic and Middle Mesozoic-early Cenozoic age. Geochemical characteristic of these deposits with total thickness of 6.5 km shows that Upper Permian, Lower Triassic, and Jurassic sandy-argillaceous sediments can be considered as oil and gas source rocks. Major resources or primarily gaseous hydrocarbons are confined to regional reservoirs of the Upper Permian and Lower Triassic deposits within the Vilyui petroliferous region and the Jurassic and particularly Lower Cretaceous deposits within the Yenisei-Khatanga petroliferous region. More than 65% of potential hydrocarbon resources of the entire province are concentrated in these regions. Practically all gas and gas-condensate fields known within the province have been discovered in the Yenisei-Khatanga and Vilyui petroliferous regions. The fields are multipooled, and pool formation in local reservoirs and traps of different typesmore » is structurally controlled. The most widespread are sheet arch pools with lithologic seals, sheet massive arches are somewhat rarer. Both the sheet arch pools with tectonic seals and structural-lithologic pools are rare. Exploration methods are determined by the structural features of the pools.« less