Assessment of Undiscovered Petroleum Resources of the North and East Margins of the Siberian Craton, Russian Federation

World Assessment of Oil and Gas Fact Sheet

Four geologic provinces located along the north and east margins of the Siberian craton were assessed for undiscovered crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids/ condensates resources as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal. Using a geology-based methodology, the USGS estimated the mean undiscovered, conventional petroleum resources in these provinces to be approximately 28 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including approximately 8 billion barrels of crude oil, 106 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 3 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

Introduction

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed an assessment of potential undiscovered, technically recoverable (assuming the absence of sea ice) crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (collectively referred to as petroleum) resources in the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, Lena-Anabar Basin, Lena-Vilyui Basin (northern part), and the Zyryanka Basin Provinces of the Russian Federation (fig. 1). As with other areas and basins assessed in the USGS Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal (CARA) program, this area shares important characteristics with many Arctic basins, including sparse data, significant petroleum-resource potential, geologic uncertainty, and technical barriers that impede exploration and development. As defined for CARA, the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin Province includes approximately 391,000 km; the Lena-Anabar Basin Province, approximately 125,000 km; the northern Priverkhoyansk part of the Lena-Vilyuy Basin Province, approximately 55,000 km, and the Zyryanka Basin Province, approximately 56,000 km.

Assessment Units

The Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, Lena-Anabar Basin, and Lena-Vilyui Basin Provinces formed on the margins of the Siberian craton and later underwent compressional deformation as a result of collision with other tectonic plates. The sedimentary successions of these provinces are similar because of their close proximity (fig. 1) and similar depositional histories. The Zyryanka Basin is a foreland basin that developed on top of a backarc basin formed during accretion and deformation of neighboring tectonic plates. This basin is bounded by extensively deformed rocks derived from oceanic/island arc terranes that, in part, were subjected to Cenozoic extension.

For purposes of assessment, the four provinces were subdivided into seven geologically distinctive assessment units (AUs) on the basis of structural style—the Khatanga Saddle, Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, Lena-Anabar Basin, Lena-Anabar Updip, Sukhan-Motorchun Riphean Rift, Northern Priverkhoyansk Foredeep, and Zyryanka Basin AUs (fig. 1). The Lena-Anabar Basin AU was evaluated using two mutually exclusive geological scenarios (table 1); the differences between them are such that the populations of undiscovered accumulations cannot be statistically combined into a single distribution. One scenario assumes that a thick lower Paleozoic section was deposited and subsequently removed by erosion before the Permian. This scenario allows for the possibility of Precambrian and Cambrian source rocks to have become thermally mature with respect to petroleum generation during the Paleozoic, and thus any accumulated petroleum would have been destroyed by the subsequent erosion. The other scenario assumes no early Paleozoic deposition and petroleum maturation probably occurred during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic. All of the AUs were quantitatively assessed.

Petroleum System Elements

Two total petroleum systems were defined in each of the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, Lena-Anabar Basin, and Lena-Vilyui Basin Provinces—one with Proterozoic and Cambrian source rocks and the other with upper Paleozoic through Jurassic source rocks. However, because of suspected mixing of petroleum, the two systems were combined into the Proterozoic-Paleozoic-Mesozoic Composite Total Petroleum System (TPS) for these provinces. In addition, a Mesozoic Composite TPS was defined within the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin Province to exclude Proterozoic and Paleozoic rocks with low petroleumsource potential. A Paleozoic-Mesozoic Composite TPS was identified in the Zyryanka Basin Province. This TPS, which incorporates the Zyryanka Basin AU (table 1), contains sedimentary rocks that are different from those in the other provinces. The greatest geologic uncertainty for the assessment of all AUs is with respect to the timing of petroleum charge and preservation of accumulations.

Analyses of crude oil and natural gas from producing wells, shows, seeps, and bitumen indicate the presence of mature source rocks in all of the AUs. Major reservoir rocks include Proterozoic and lower Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks and upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic clastic rocks. Postulated traps for petroleum accumulations include compressional structures (folds and thrust faults) and updip pinchouts, as well as other stratigraphic traps.

Resource Summary

Arctic Ocean The USGS assessed undiscovered conventional, technically recoverable petroleum resources (discovered reserves not included), resulting in the estimated mean volumes of a probability distribution of approximately 8 billion barrels (1 billion metric tons) of crude oil, 106 trillion cubic feet (3 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas, and 3 billion barrels (400 million metric tons) of natural gas liquids (table 1). The largest volume of undiscovered petroleum is estimated to be in the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin AU.

Reference

IHS Energy, 2006, International petroleum exploration and production database [includes data current through December, 2006]: IHS Energy; database available from IHS Energy, 15 Inverness Way East, Englewood, CO 80112, U.S.A.

SIBERIAN CRATON For Further Information

Assessment results are available at the USGS Central Energy Team website, http://energy.usgs.gov/arctic, or contact Donald L. Gautier, Task Leader for the USGS Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal (gautier@usgs.gov).

Circum-Arctic Petroleum Resource Assessment Team

T.R. Klett (assessing geologist), K.J. Bird, P.J. Brown II, R.R. Charpentier, D.L. Gautier, D.W. Houseknecht, T.E. Moore, J.K. Pitman, R.W. Saltus, C.J. Schenk, A.K. Shah, K.I. Takahashi, M.E. Tennyson, and C.J. Wandrey

Acknowledgment

Geographical Information System analysis was performed by F.M. Persits.

Figure 1. Map showing location of geologic provinces and assessment units along the northern and eastern margins of the Siberian craton north of the Arctic Circle.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from U.S. Geological Survey. Published by the U.S. Geological Survey and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.