Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Laptev Sea Shelf Province, 2008

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Laptev Sea Shelf Province as part of the 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA) program. The province is situated in the Russian Federation and is located between the Taimyr Peninsula and the Novosibirsk (New Siberian) Islands. Three assessment units (AUs) were defined for this study: the West Laptev Grabens AU, the East Laptev Horsts AU, and the Anisin-Novosibirsk AU, two of which were assessed for undiscovered, technically recoverable resources. The East Laptev Horsts AU was not quantitatively assessed. The estimated mean volumes of undiscovered oil and gas for the Laptev Sea Shelf Province are approximately 3 billion barrels of crude oil, 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and <1 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, all north of the Arctic Circle.