Oil and Gas Resources of the West Siberian Basin, Russia
November 1, 1997
Oil and Gas Resources of the West Siberian Basin, Russia is part of the Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Foreign Energy Supply Assessment Program (FESAP). The primary objective of this study is to assess the oil and gas potential of the West Siberian Basin of Russia. The study does not analyze the costs or technology necessary to achieve the estimates of the ultimate recoverable oil and gas.
This is the second report on an oil and gas province in the former Soviet Union. The first, Oil and Gas Resources of the Fergana Basin (Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, and Kyrgyzstan), was published in January 1995.
Russia's West Siberian Basin contains sufficient oil and natural gas to affect world petroleum markets. The basin supplies approximately 70 percent of the oil and 90 percent of the gas production for Russia. Decreases in produced volumes from the basin would require that the demand for petroleum in Russia be met from other sources. Likewise, increases in production would increase the amount of oil or gas for export into international markets.
This study uses reservoir data to estimate recoverable oil and gas quantities which were aggregated to the field level. Field totals were summed to a basin total for discovered fields. An estimate of undiscovered oil and gas, from work of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), was added to give a total basin resource volume. Recent production decline points out Russia's need to continue development of its discovered recoverable oil and gas. Continued exploration is required to discover additional oil and gas that remains undiscovered in the basin.
The estimates of recoverable oil and gas for the regions of the basin, the individual fields, and the geologic intervals are intended as a guide to organizations such as oil and gas operating companies, financial institutions, and government agencies. In addition to the estimates of maximum recovery, the reported and estimated reservoir parameters are a valuable reference source. The appendices contain the estimates of ultimate recovery by field and frequency distributions of the reservoir data. Additionally, a computer diskette contains the reported and estimated parameters for each productive reservoir.
Several independent petroleum engineers and geologists with experience in West Siberia have reviewed the analysis and contributed many useful suggestions which have been incorporated in the report. Retired and current staff of the USGS also assisted in reviewing this report. The assistance of all of these professionals is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks is given to Dr. James W. Clarke and Dr. James A. Peterson, USGS retired, who contributed Appendix A, Petroleum Geology in its entirety.