Abstract
Analysis of geological positions of the largest oil-and-gas-bearing basins, carried out on the basis of research data represented in the “Geological atlas of Russia” and other publications, allowed to mark out petroleum-bearing Ural-African oil and gas belt. This largest on the Earth belt of hydrocarbons accumulation is connected with the near-meridional band of a giant long-existing intercontinental faulting (rifting) zone preexistent since Riphean in the central part of Eurasia and elongated with smooth rejuvenation through Paleozoic and Mesozoic into the South Caspian region, Persian gulf and into African platform (meridian system of African rifts). Most part of conventional oil (near 75%) and gas (more than 65%) reserves are concentrated within the bounds of this belt. The area of this unique “saturated-in-hydrocarbons” structure makes only 6-7% of the total globe surface. By its geological structure and character of the mantle and crust masses differentiation, this belt features the global anomaly zone in the Earth gravitation field. Large part of the Ural-African transcontinental petroleum belt (>50% of area) occurs on the territory of Russia. Its northern part comprises principal Russian oil-and-gas-bearing basins comprising most of large and super-large hydrocarbon fields which contain predominant amount of explored in Russia reserves of oil (95%) and gas (>95%). By the thickness and area size of sedimentary cover, as well as the quantity of explored natural gas resources, the West-Siberian basin is quite similar to the Persian Gulf significantly receding only in oil reserves (8 times less). Taking into account a certain parity of oil and gas ratio in principal petroleum basins of the world, the revealed oil-gas disproportion in West Siberia may be considered as an argument for high probability of new discoveries of oil fields there.
Highlights
IntroductionOil and gas are becoming ever more difficult to access
Conventional hydrocarbon fields are currently being depleted throughout the world
Global transnational oil and gas companies will be less dependent on one government; they are already a mechanism for the rapid introduction of innovative technologies and are supporting economic progress in the developing nations;
Summary
Oil and gas are becoming ever more difficult to access. The globalization of the world economy is having a strong impact on raw materials markets, and these trends will intensify:. The influence of raw materials resources on the economic stability of many countries will increase;. Global transnational oil and gas companies will be less dependent on one government; they are already a mechanism for the rapid introduction of innovative technologies and are supporting economic progress in the developing nations;. Nations that produce raw materials claim to be liberalizing their foreign trade policy, but in practice are limiting access to their fields;. The geographical extent of hydrocarbon resource exploration and development can be expanded in new geological provinces using new knowledge in the sphere of the geological structure and scientific and technical advances. This paper is a continuation of the research at the National Mineral Resources University (University of Mines) that was described in the ‘Geological Atlas of Russia [1,2,3]
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