The diversity of hydrocarbon habitat in Russia

The setting of the petroleum basins of Russia varies from Precambrian cratons to Tertiary active margins. Four economically and strategically important basins illustrate this diversity. The North Sakhalin Basin is a Tertiary strike-slip basin supplied with Oligocene-Pliocene reservoir sands, and seal- and source-forming mudrocks by the palaeo-Amur delta. Miocene diatomites are additional source rocks. Plio-Pleistocene structuring was crucial to hydrocarbon entrapment. The West Siberia Basin contains identified oil reserves of 60 billion bbl and 1400 tcf gas, respectively 47% of the oil reserves of the CIS and 77% of its gas reserves. The world-class Upper Jurassic Bazhenov source rock and a high impedance entrapment style are the keys to the productivity of the basin. The Timan-Pechora Basin contains Ordovician-Triassic reservoirs and a major Late Devonian source rock. Hydrocarbon preservation is good despite the basin's complex history of subsidence and inversion. On the Siberian Platform in East Siberia 12 billion BOE reserves are sourced, reservoired and sealed by Upper Precambrian-Cambrian rocks. Protracted preservation times there reflect a stable geological setting.