Shale Gas Potential of the Lower Carboniferous of Dnieper-Donets Basin and Non-Anticlanal Traps

Abstract

The structure, lithology, paleogeography and lithofacies of Rudov Beds of the Lower Carboniferous deposits of the Dnieper-Donets Basin are being considered. The results of the present condition of Rudov Beds researches by the complex of analytical methods are being generalized. The perspectives of Lower Carboniferous deposits for the prospecting and the exploration of shale gas resources are being defined. Rudov Beds are part of Upper Visean Productive horizon V-23. They lie on limestone of the Lower Visean or on a basal silt-sandy bench. The most complete sections of the underlying Rudov Beds detrital rocks were uncovered in the submerged parts of the DDB preaxial depressions-Sviridov-Krasnozavodsk-Rudov, Chervonoluky-Harkovtsy and Solokha-Kotelva-Berezovka zones-where their thicknesses vary from 45-50 to 80 m. They have predominantly alluvial-deltaic genesis and with a washout occur on the vesicular limestones of XIII MFH. Traps with two or more trapping elements are called combination traps (or non-anticlinal traps). Many petroleum traps have both stratigraphic and structural features. Some, in which both types of characteristics are essential in trapping petroleum, are difficult to classify as either primarily structural or primarily stratigraphic. For instance, originally horizontal formations that now pinch out updip can trap hydrocarbons that might not otherwise have accumulated. The perspectives of Lower Carboniferous deposits for the prospecting and the exploration of shale gas resources are being defined in paleogeomorphic traps (as type of combination or non-anticlinal traps). Paleogeomorphic traps are controlled by buried landscape. Some are associated with prominences (hills); others withdepression (valleys). Many are also partly controlled by unconformities so are also termed unconformity traps.