Arctic Zone of the Siberian Platform - Resource Base and Development Potential

Abstract

The interest of oil and gas companies in the Arctic region of the Earth, despite the difficulties in the geological exploration, the development and the exploitation of discovered fields, in access to markets for the produced hydrocarbons is quite high. According to the US Geological survey, the subsoil of the Arctic zones of five coastal States – the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark and Norway – contains at least 525 billion BBOE (barrels of oil equivalent) or 75 billion tons, including the subsoil of the Arctic zone of Russia – 315.4 billion BBOE (26). The Arctic zone of the Eastern Siberia is characterized by a harsh climate (in winter the temperature drops below −60 °C on land and to −40 °C at sea), the presence of the permafrost, the lack or remoteness of the infrastructure for the delivery of the necessary equipment and materials, the transportation of produced hydrocarbons, short periods of the field work from November to April on land, from July to September at sea (6, 7, 25). The basic concepts of the geological and tectonic structure and the oil and gas content of the land and the adjacent shelf of the Arctic zone of the Siberian platform are based on the seismic data, tied to the existing deep parametric and exploratory wells. To date, five regional seismostratigraphic complexes have been identified and described: the Mesozoic-Cenozoic, the Permian-Lower Triassic, the Upper-Middle Paleozoic, the Upper Proterozoic-Cambrian and the surface of the basement. The evaluation of the potential hydrocarbon resources was carried out in the Yenisei-Khatanga, the Anabaro-Khatanga, the Anabar-Lena and part on the Laptev Sea oil and gas regions.