Genesis of the West Siberian Basin and its petroleum geology: A recent interpretation

A prominent Western specialist on the geology of the oil and gas deposits of Russia provides an interpretation of the genesis of the West Siberian basin, relying, in part, on most recent Russian studies as well as information made available in 1994 evaluating the reserves of Russia's most important producing province. From Late Carboniferous through Middle Jurassic time, the region of West Siberia passed through orogenic, rift, and early platform stages. A domal high was present in the region during the orogenic stage, arising from cratonization of the Ural-Mongolian fold belt. Early Triassic rifting was part of a global rifting event and was a precursor to the subsequent crustal sagging that produced the West Siberian basin. The Early-Middle Jurassic was a time of cyclical marine and continental deposition, the sea moving back and forth from the north. The Talinskoye oil field occurs in Lower-Middle Jurassic sandstones that have the form of a river channel that extends more than 200 km. The Priobskoye field is associated with a Lower Cretaceous clinoform that has been traced N–S for more than 300 km. It is suggested that: (a) the oil in the Lower Cretaceous Neocomian sandstones was sourced by bituminous clays that interfinger with these sandstones on the west; and (b) that Upper Cretaceous Cenomanian gas was sourced in part by deeply buried Paleozoics and by overlying Upper Cretaceous Turonian clays. Predicted discoveries in West Siberia include several thousand small fields with reserves of less than 10 million tons, 250 to 300 medium-sized fields, and several large fields with 30 to 100 million tons.