The petroleum potential of the Riphean-Vendian succession of southern East Siberia

Abstract

The Siberian Platform covers an area of c. 4.5 million km 2 in the East Siberia region of Russia, up to 3.5 million km 2 of which is prospective for hydrocarbons. We review the Archaean to Neoproterozoic evolution of the Siberian Platform and the potential oil and gas resources of Riphean, Vendian and Infracambrian sediments. The Riphean was dominated by passive margin sedimentation and was intensely deformed during the Baikalian orogeny. Vendian strata record a clastic transgressive sequence and the eventual re-establishment of carbonate platform sedimentation. The late Vendian-early Cambrian is characterized by carbonate deposition including thick salt horizons, which form a regional seal. Hydrocarbon maturation and migration from Riphean and Vendian source rocks occurred during the late Neoproterozoic and Early Palaeozoic, indicating that hydrocarbon reservoirs on the Siberian Platform may have hosted their reserves over a remarkable period of geological time. Despite many years of hydrocarbon exploration in East Siberia, many regions remain under-explored, and aspects of the proven hydrocarbon systems are poorly understood. There are undoubtedly more major discoveries to be made in the region, and the Infracambrian succession of the southern Siberian Platform therefore represents an irresistible target for further hydrocarbon exploration.

Structural Diagenesis in Carbonate Rocks as Identified in Fault Damage Zones in the Northern Tarim Basin, NW China

“…The "sweet spots" of fracture-cave reservoirs (assemblages of caves, vugs and fractures) showing "bead-shape" strong reflection in the seismic profile [28]) are main targets for the production in the carbonate reservoirs [29,33,34]. The fracture-cave reservoirs are quite different from the high matrix reservoirs and meteoric karst reservoirs [35,36], but are strongly heterogeneous reservoirs that are close to hypogene or hydrothermal karstification along fault zones [37][38][39].…”