Petroleum Accumulation Zones on Continental Margins

Some of the best–known petroleum engineers in the world have come together to produce one of the first comprehensive publications on detailed forecasts of offshore petroleum potential.

As in the Gulf of Mexico, there is a tremendous amount of undeveloped hydrocarbon resources located in the Russian continental shelf, which is under intense scrutiny by the oil and gas industry. Not just American companies, but Chinese, Russian, and European countries are all eyeing this area with a view toward developing these tremendous untapped reserves. These areas remain untapped, primarily because they are essentially unreachable through conventional methods of recovery.

The primary aim of this book is to introduce new, unconventional methods for exploration and development of areas like the Russian continental shelf, showing, through practical applications, how these areas can, in fact, be developed. Not limiting themselves to the Russian continental shelf, the authors use these particular areas as a proving ground for their methods, which could be used in any similar situation in the world.

With reserves in the Middle East and North Sea being decimated at a much faster rate than was originally forecast, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and in other continental margins to develop new reserves of oil and gas is one of the biggest issues facing the energy industry, indeed our whole world, today. This will be the new challenge for both veteran engineers and students, alike, as they go forward in this new era of world energy production.

This groundbreaking new volume includes:

Mathematical models never used before for the extraction of oil and gas from continental accumulation zones Real–world examples for the petroleum engineering student, focusing on new, unconventional methods, as opposed to traditional methods for offshore operations Detailed descriptions of areas such as the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic, China, and the Russian continental shelf, with a view toward maximizing possible oil and gas reserves in these important accumulation zones

Introduction 11

1. Methodological Support of the Zonal Forecasting 15

1.1 Zonal oil and gas potential forecast in an aquatory environment 15

1.2 Study of the proved oil– and gas–accumulation zones 21

2. Some Specifics in Structure, Evolution and Oil and Gas Occurrences of the Continental Margins 25

2.1 The doctrine of continental margins 25

2.2 Continental margin structure and evolution 28

2.3 Oil and gas occurrences of the continental margins 39

3. Zonal Hydrocarbon Accumulations on the Subsurface of the Pacific Group Continental Margins 49

3.1 Oil– and gas–accumulation zones subsurface the island arc margins 50

3.2 Oil– and gas–accumulation zones over the Pacific margins of North and South America 101

4. Zonal Hydrocarbon Accumulation in the Subsurface of Atlantic Group Continental Margins 163

4.1 Oil– and gas–accumulation zones at the rift (preceding) stage of continental margin evolution 164

4.2 Early– and syn–oceanic continental margin evolution stage. Oil– and gas–accumulation zones 175

4.3 Transitional (Mediterranean) continental margin evolution state. Oil– and gas–accumulation zones 270

5. General Patterns in Formation and Distribution of Oil– and Gas–Accumulation Zones in Subsurface the Continental Margins 327

5.1 Parameters and general characteristics of oil– and gas–accumulation zones 327

5.2 Specifics of the spatial distribution 342

5.3 Hydrocarbon concentration zones phase specialization 347

5.4 Most important factors in the formation and distribution of oil and gas accumulation zones 356

6. Zonal Oil and Gas Potential Forecast for the Russia s Offshore Areas. Initial Results 383

6.1 Offshore extension of the Timan–Pechora Province 383

6.2 Kara Sea 398

6.3 NE Sakhalin Shelf (North Sakhalin oil and gas basin) 409

Conclusions 415

Literature 417

Yu. N. Grigorenko, PhD, after graduating in 1959 from the Leningrad Mining Institute, became a well–known specialist in the oil and gas industry and is currently the Chairman of the Dissertation Council of the All–Russia Petroleum Research Exploration Institute (VNIGRI). He has written over 200 publications, including six monographs, and has received many honors, including the Honored Geologist of the Russian Federation.

George V. Chilingar, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern California. He is one of the most well–known petroleum geologists in the world and the founder of several prestigious journals in the oil and gas industry. He has published over 70 books and 500 articles and has received over 100 awards over his career.

V. S. Sobolev, PhD, is a well–known petroleum geologist and is a professor at the Institute of Geology and Minerology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

T. A. Andiyeva, PhD, and L. I. Zhukova, PhD, are both professors at the All–Russia Petroleum Research Exploration Institute (VNIGRI), Ministry of Natural Resources, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), in St. Petersburg, Russia.