Large undiscovered oil resources are predicted south of Russia

Abstract

Stavropol Region is one of the oldest petroleum provinces on South of Russian Federation. Today, most of its fields are depleted and prospects for the discovery of new large hydrocarbon deposits considered exhausted. However, our studies allow us to talk about the possibility of the existence of previously undiscovered oil reservoirs, clamped in the source rocks associated with North-Stavropol tectonic element. In the middle of the last century, similar deposits have been identified within Prikumsk-Tyulenevskiy (Praskoveyskoe, Achikulakskoye, Ozek-Suat and a number of other fields) and Chernolesskiy (Zhuravskoye, Vorobyevskoye) tectonic elements. However, these findings were largely spontaneous due to lack of approved and unified approach to the petrophysical evaluation of dedicated reservoirs from well logs. At the same time the experience of shale reservoirs studies, as well as the results of its implementation to evaluation of deposits of Zhuravsky-Vorobyevsky petroleum accumulation zone, allows to revise existing well log materials for deep wells of explorational and depleted structures, and to identify promising intervals for further re-exploration and testing. In this work, Paleocene sediments of Blagodarnenskaya explorational structure of the Stavropol Region were studied. Despite the approval of the oil bearing of these deposits within the Prikumsk-Tyulenevskiy tectonic element and the positive signs of hydrocarbon saturation from initial well logs data, its evaluation and testing within Blagodarnenskaya structure associated with North-Stavropol tectonic element, were not conducted. However, the results of well logs analysis performed by us with the use of interpretation technique approved on reservoirs of Zhuravsky-Vorobyevsky petroleum accumulation zone, as well as the core tests indicate the presence of oil-saturated reservoirs in the Paleocene sediments of Blagodarnenskaya structure.