Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326

www.elsevier.com/locate/rgg

Oil and gas pools: the fundamentals of formation,

prospecting, and exploitation
I.I. Nesterov *
West Siberian Department of the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the RAS,
8 ul. Malygina, Tyumen’, 625000, Russia
Received 5 September 2008

Abstract

The paper deals with the main fundamental problem of oil and gas geology—compilation of a theoretical basis and elucidation of the
mechanism of hydrocarbon pool formation. The temperature factor determining this mechanism is insufficient for the breaking of carbon–carbon
bonds in organic molecules. It is shown that this process is provoked by the internal energy of the subsurface organic matter determined by
unpaired electrons surrounding carbon nuclei. In natural processes, this phenomenon is realized as a result of sedimentary-rock consolidation
on the subsidence of sedimentation basins, during subhorizontal microdislocations measured via Poisson’s ratio and Protod’yakonov “arch”.
This effect can be reached on hydrofracturing. A possibility of fluid hydrocarbon migration beyond the modern-day oil and gas pools is
discussed, thus demonstrating that there are no traces that would suggest oil migration. Hydrocarbon pools have been revealed in clayey rocks,
both bituminous and OM-poor. It is shown that the exploitation of a new type of reservoir (bazhenite) with natural hydrocarbon pools as well
as technogenic (newly formed) oil and gas pools in clayey, clay-siliceous, siliceous, clay-carbonate, and clay-siliceous-carbonate bituminous
rocks will significantly increase oil production in West Siberia.
© 2009, IGM, Siberian Branch of the RAS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: hydrocarbon pools; migration; free radicals; spin energy; bituminous rocks

Introduction tive estimation of its transformation into HC raw material;

Since this journal issue is dedicated to the 75th birthday of
Academician A.E. Kontorovich, it is worth noting that he is
an outstanding scientist not only in fundamental geology of
oil and gas but also in realizing geoscience programs. There
is hardly any scientific problem that would not spark his
interest (Kontorovich and Melenevskii, 1988; Kontorovich and
Stasova, 1964; Kontorovich et al., 1967a,b, 1985, 1997, 1999,
2005, 2006, 2007a,b), and this gives grounds for discussions:
e.g., how A.E. Kontorovich and any of us approach the same
problem (Nesterov, 2007).
Models for search and prospecting for hydrocarbon (HC)
pools and their exploitation on the below-considered funda-
mental basis will help to increase the Earth’s petroleum
potential by an order of magnitude and higher and develop
accessible prospecting and exploitation technologies based on
the following parameters: (1) paleogeographic environments
of accumulation of organic matter (OM), including quantita-
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: niigig@tmnsc.ru (I.I. Nesterov)
1068-7971/$ - see front matter D 2009, IGM, Siberian Branch of the RAS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.rgg.2009.03.007
(2) rock pressure; (3) parameters derived from Poisson’s ratio
of the core and redistribution of rock pressure via Protod’ya-
konov “arch”; (4) data of multicomponent seismic prospecting
and electrogravimagnetic studies; and (5) results of well test.
Fundamental problems of formation
of hydrocarbon pools
Many geologists consider temperature to be the main factor
determining the formation of HC pools (Fomin, 2004; Hunt,
1979; Kontorovich et al., 1967b, 1997; Tissot and Welte,
1978; Vassoevich, 1967, 1986; Vyshemirskii et al., 1971). Oils
and natural HC gases are dominated by methyl and methylene
groups, which are virtually lacking in flora and fauna and
serve as a basis for buried dispersed OM of rocks. But at the
diagenesis stage, CH2- and CH- groups appear in kerogen at
the expense of bacteriologic filter, up to (0−20)⋅1020 units/g.
At the medium-catagenesis stage, their amount increases to
300⋅1020 units/g, and at the late-catagenesis and early-meta-
morphism stages, it again decreases to (0−55)⋅1020 units/g.
 I.I. Nesterov / Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326
The isotopic composition of carbon also continuously changes:
13
δ C = –80 to –90‰ at the diagenesis stage (marsh gases),
–60 to –80‰ in gas pools, –35 to –60‰ in gas condensate
pools, and –28 to –35‰ in oil pools.
The breaking of carbon–carbon bonds in solid OM requires
energy of at least 50–60 cal/mole at 320 °C. Such temperatures
are atypical of sedimentary sections with HC pools. The fact
that 320 °C is the critical temperature is indirectly supported
by results of oil analyses. Heating of oils to this temperature
does not cause the formation of any new HCs, but at >320 °C,
new HCs appear. This indicates that the oil pools have already
passed temperatures below 320 °C during their formation.
Therefore, there is some other source of energy rather than
temperature. Such a source is spin molecular energy conserved
in OM proper (Nesterov, 2007).
It was established that the OM of sedimentary rocks has
an intramolecular energy related to the disturbance of electron
exchange around neighboring carbon nuclei. This energy is
measured by EPR spectroscopy. We have determined about
1500 paramagnetic centers (unpaired electrons).
The spin energy of OM has been poorly studied. In the
scheme of its accumulation it might be similar to the quantum
energy of hydrogen, which has more than 13 levels of the
orbital positions of electron migration owing to large-scale
energy injection. This energy is released when electron
migrates to a stable orbit at the expense of “ignition” energy
generated by a special technology.
The spin energy is initiated in dead OM through bacterial
activity, when oxygen and nitrogen are released from the OM,
thus leading to the formation of methyl and methylene groups
and migration of electron to a new orbit around two carbon
nuclei. Then, as the rocks are subsided under the temperature
and pressure effect, the processes of electron orbit change
intensify, and the quantity of unpaired electrons increases to
2⋅1020 spin/g. The electron migration is accompanied by the
generation of magnetic field, an indicator of the energy
potential of OM. In nature, the migration of electron to a
neutral orbit is triggered by rock consolidation and subhori-
zontal microdislocations measured via Poisson’s ratio and
Protod’yakonov “arch”, their total effect could be plotted as
a function of injectivity and stratum fracturing pressure.
Migration of electron to a neutral orbit is accompanied by
the release of spin energy, which can break carbon–carbon
bonds to produce oil and combustible gases. In this case, the
concentration of unpaired electrons in OM decreases; in oils
it is (0−5)⋅1017 spin/g. Such reactions with breaking of C–C
bonds cannot be caused by temperature growth.
On rock subsidence, each stage of OM catagenesis is
characterized by particular values of EPR spectra parameters.
Table 1 lists them in comparison with limiting values obtained
by other research methods.
Recent oil and gas pools discovered in clayey rocks (both
bituminous and OM-poor) (Kontorovich et al., 1997; Nesterov
and Shpil’man, 1987) are of paramount interest in terms of
their in situ formation.
321
Clayey, clay-siliceous, and carbonate clay-siliceous bitumi-
nous deposits are widespread in the Earth’s crust. They are
best studied in the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous strata of
West Siberia (Bazhenovo, Tutleim, Igrim, and Mulym’ya
Formations) that have yielded more than 150 oil pools. The
maximum oil flows (wells 129-R, 501-R, etc. in the Salym-
skaya area) reach 2500–5000 m3/day. The spatial localization
of these pools is not controlled by the modern structural plan
and is not related to fault zones and strong rock jointing. The
pools lack edge and bottom groundwaters, have abnormally
high formation pressures, and are characterized by a serious
effect of rock pressure on fluid filtration, often with an
increased productivity coefficient during oil recovery.
The oil reservoir lacks a rigid framework. It forms synchro-
nously with oil and becomes a cap after oil recovery. These
pools undoubtedly formed in situ. Even if there were no fluid
flows during well test of such bituminous rocks, those could
be induced by force.
A radically new technology is proposed to convert kerogen
into oil within the rock strata. It consists in the induction of
a powerful electromagnetic field through a waterfrac by oil,
alkaline solutions with hydrophobized proppant, or hydrosilica
saturated with either aluminum powder, H2O2 solution or its
analogue, or an explosive nondetonating at ≤100 MPa and
≤150 °C. Apart from West Siberia, bituminous rocks with
recoverable oil exist in East Siberia, in the Kara, Barents, and
North Seas, in Great Britain, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Komi,
Brazil, Venezuela, the USA, China, Australia, etc. (Hunt,
1979; Kontorovich et al., 1975; Neruchev, 1969; Tissot and
Welte, 1978).
Exploration of bituminous clayey, clay-siliceous, carbonate,
and siliceous-carbonate rocks is a powerful oil production
reserve not only in Russia but in most of the world’s countries.
For example, in West Siberia, an annual oil production from
these rocks can be increased to 700–800 mln m3. Here, these
rocks cover an area of 1,290,000 km2 and occur at depths of
1200–1400 m. Their average thickness is 27.2 m, and their
volume is 35,000 km3. The rocks contain 6578 bln m3
kerogen, which can be converted to 1973 bln m3 oil, with its
extractable volume of 580 bln m3 (or 174 bln m3, if applying
modern technologies).
Oil pools are also known in gray-colored slabby OM-poor
clayey rocks in the Vorob’evsko-Zhuravskaya area in the
Stavropol’ Territory, Northern Caucasus (Nesterov, 1964).
Here the oil is produced from the aforementioned rocks of the
Khadum (15–40 m thick) and Batalpashinsk (50–60 m)
Formations of the Oligocene Maikop Group at a depth of
2000–2200 m. The average initial formation pressure is
30.5–30.8 MPa.
Methane-naphthene oil has a density of 0.84–0.87 g/cm3.
Methane HCs amount to 47–52%, and naphthene and aromatic
HCs, to 31–37 and 14.5–16.3%, respectively. Gas flow is
47–83 m3/day. Oil-dissolved gas from surface rocks consists
mainly of methane (62–71%). On recovery, the formation
pressure decreases to 27–28 MPa, and the HC pool is
inundated, sometimes to 100%. After the wells with 100%
inundation were shutdown for a year and then brought back
Table 1 322
Comparison of OM catagenesis scales

Scale Parameters from vitrinite analysis Parameters from other analyses

Wide EPR spectrum recorded in air, Hydrogen content

Coefficients of Content
n⋅1017 spin/g in OM, %
After I.I. Nesterov of Maximum
After N.B. Vassoevich Interplanar
Coal (Nesterov and combustible paleotem-
(1986) distance, Å kerogen
Shpil’man, 1987) reflection gases perature, ˚C
refraction in coals, % coals humolites sapropelites
in air, ‰
humolites sapropelites

Peat (P1) Protocata- — Diagenesis IC0 20 — — — 10 7 25 2.5–7.5 7.5–16.0 10

(P2) genesis Early EC1 52 1.580 — 72 20 35 220 2.0–7.5 7.5–16.0 50
Brown coal (B1) PC1 catagenesis EC 56 1.615 — 60 30 50 320 1.9–6.7 6.7–15.5 70
2
(B2) PC2 EC3 60 1.635 — 55 35 140 400 1.9–6.6 6.6–15.2 85
(B3) PC3 62 1.655 — 52 40 170 450 1.9–6.4 6.4–15.0 90
Medium MC1 67 1.690 — 45 50 230 600 1.8–6.3 6.3–14.8 110
(Blf) Mesocata- MC1 catagenesis 70 1.710 3.72 42 50 270 1200 1.8–6.2 6.2–14.7 120
Long-flame (LF) genesis MC2 74 1.720 3.68 38 45 190 800 1.8–6.9 6.9–14.4 135
MC2 76 1.755 3.66 36 40 140 300 1.7–5.8 5.8–14.0 145
Gas (G) 83 1.810 3.62 32 30 10 20 1.6–5.7 5.7–13.6 165
Late LC1 85 1.825 3.6 30 70 13 25 1.6–5.5 5.5–12.8 175
MC3 catagenesis 86 1.830 3.59 29 80 15 29 1.5–5.5 5.5–12.5 180
Steam-rich (SR) 88 1.850 3.58 27 120 20 30 1.5–5.5 5.5–11.7 185
Rich (R) LC2 92 1.880 3.55 24 150 25 35 1.5–5.4 5.4–11.2 195
Coking (C) M C4 94 1.900 3.55 23 180 30 40 1.5–5.3 5.3–11.0 200
LC3 98 1.930 3.54 21 210 20 20 1.5–5.2 5.2–9.2 210
Steam-baking (SB) MC5 101 1.960 3.53 19 220 15 1 1.4–5.1 5.1–9.9 215
LC4 104 1.995 3.52 17 240 10 0 1.4–5.0 5.0–9.5 220
Apocata- AC1 106 2.010 3.51 15 250 7 0 1.3–4.9 4.9–9.1 225
I.I. Nesterov / Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326

Lean (L) genesis 111 2.060 3.5 13 270 0 0 1.2–4.7 4.7–8.6 235
LC5 114 2.090 3.49 12 300 0 0 1.3–4.5 4.5–8.0 240
Semianthracitic (SA) AC2 Early EM1 118 2.120 3.48 10 315 0 0 1.2–4.4 4.4–7.0 250
metamor- 125 2.180 3.47 7 310 0 0 1.1–3.6 3.6–4.0 260
phism
Anthracite (A) 128 2.220 3.46 5 300 0 0 1.0–3.2 3.2–3.5 265
AC3 155 2.540 3.41 0 240 0 0 0.7–2.2 2.2–1.8 320
EM2 170 — 3.39 0 50 0 0 0.5–1.2 1.2–0 330
EM3 192 — 3.37 0 90 0 0 0.3–0.6 0.6–0 350
EM4 210 — 3.35 0 0 0 0 0.0–0.5 0.5–0 365
Graphite (G) Medium metamorphism
 I.I. Nesterov / Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326
into production, the formation pressure became even higher
than the initial one, and the wells yielded anhydrous oil.
The pool-hosting rocks are weakly bituminous. They
contain on average of 1.54–3.97 wt.% TOC, 0.003–0.18 wt.%
chloroform bitumoids, and 0.0024–0.045% alcohol-benzene
bitumoids. The average ratio of the former to the latter
bitumoids is 0.15–1.5.
It is believed that oil pools can be artificially produced in
gray-colored OM-poor clays by analogy with bituminous
rocks. This increases the Earth’s oil potential up to unlimited
values. The appearance of water in operating wells is due to
the wrong regime of pool exploitation, with ignored rock
pressure, increase in the volume of drained fluids, and control
over the oil flow from the wells to prevent the compression
of the loose reservoir.
Almost all models for the formation of oil and gas pools
a priori imply HC migration, based on the assumption that the
HC mass in actual pools is considerably greater than the
amount of dispersed OM and bitumoids in the host rocks
(Kontorovich et al., 1967b; Neruchev, 1969; Tissot and Welte,
1978; Vassoevich, 1967; Vyshemirskii et al., 1971). This
implication is erroneous because of the comparison of contents
measured in volume and weight percentage, which are com-
mensurate in the host rocks.
Detailed study of the formation of oil and gas pools raises
questions that cannot be answered regardless of the HC
migration mechanism.
The main question is why 80–99% of HC traps remain
aquiferous below the upper pool at the deposit bottom during
vertical HC migration and why only one of 100 traps contains
an oil and gas pool during lateral HC migration. The so-called
“barren” and “productive” rock systems of the oil field do not
differ in geochemical, fluid-dynamic, and physical parameters.
None of the models explains the reasons for the absence of
HC pools from traps between productive stratum systems.
One of the main criteria for predicting the presence of
petroleum is paleogeographic (paleogeomorphologic) settings
(Kontorovich et al., 1967a; Neruchev, 1969; Vassoevich,
1967; Vyshemirskii et al., 1971; Yolkin et al., 2007). In marine
sediments, it might be present in uplifted zones (bituminous
sand banks), and in continental sediments, in subsurface zones
with the reducing (bog and lake) conditions of sapropel
accumulation (most often, in the day surface lows).
Oil source OM, like coal beds, is of sporadic occurrence
in standard sand and carbonate reservoirs of coeval strata. In
clayey bituminous rocks, oil source OM accumulated in
regionally persistent stratigraphic units in strictly specified
time. The periodicity of this process obeys the bilogarithmic-
distribution law.
Formation of gas pools is usually explained by water
degassing during tectonic movements. This “simple” explana-
tion is in conflict with the following facts:
– In zones with lower OM catagenesis in the host rocks,
gas dissolved in groundwaters is always more “fat” than gas
in pools, and in zones with higher OM catagenesis, gas, on
the contrary, is an order of magnitude richer in heavy methane
homologs than groundwater gas.
323
– If the reserves of each component are calculated in any
gas (oil) pool and distributing them among drainage zones,
then the higher is the sorption of gas (oil) components by
rocks, the larger is the area of their drainage before the
formation of pool. According to physical laws, gas pools must
lack heavy gas HCs and oil pools must lack complex paraffin,
asphaltene, aromatic, and other compounds.
– In most of the world’s petroleum-water basins, the deficit
of water-dissolved gases decreases with distance from zones
with the maximum concentration of gas fields. This fact cannot
be explained by degassing of groundwaters in the zones,
otherwise all traps would contain gas pools.
To explain formation of oil pools in terms of oil migration
is still more difficult. The average world coefficient of pool
oil extraction is 32% at formation pressure of 10–12 MPa. In
nature, formation pressures are hundreds and thousands of
times lower, but no traces of oil migration have been
discovered, i.e., the coefficient of oil extraction on migration
is 100%. This phenomenon cannot be explained by the long
duration of geologic processes.
Where oil pools have been exposed to daylight for almost
100 Myr (e.g., on the Olenek River in Yakutia) in extreme
weather conditions, cropping out sandstones appear to be
purified from oil to a depth of only 2–3 mm from the outer
surface (Kashirtsev and Kontorovich, 2006).
Nevertheless, a few models for oil pool formation can be
proposed. One of them shows a scheme of concentration of
gas-dissolved oil in trap. At 30 MPa and 90–100 °C, migration
of 1 kg oil requires on average 15–20 m3 gas. If pressure
decreases by 0.1 MPa, only 0.6 g oil falls out of 1 m3 gas.
Following this model, in the case of a 10 MPa decrease in
gas pressure, the formation of oil reserves of the Samotlorskoe
field would require more than 80 TCM gas, which is unreal.
The solubility of light oils in water is 0.003%; if water
contains up to 2% fat acids, the oil solubility increases to 0.2%
(oil occurs in colloid form). When temperature and pressure
decrease by 10 °C and 10 MPa, respectively, at least 2% of
the total oil must fall out of the water moving from flanks to
arch of the trap.
According to the above model, formation of the oil reserves
of the Samotlorskoe field would require passage of ∼120 TCM
water with dissolved oil through productive strata, which is
impossible.
Figure 1 illustrates a function between the depositional
facies of gas-condensate-hosting rocks and the condensate
factor. There is obvious correlation between depositional
facies expressed as an alkalinity coefficient and a fluid
concentration in gas. Since rocks cannot migrate, the above
dependence unambiguously indicates that there was no fluid
migration. The absence of fluid migration and in situ formation
of oil and gas pools are supported by the discovery of oil
pools in bituminous clayey rocks in West Siberia and, later,
in the Stavropol’ Territory. These pools are characterized by
an abnormal high formation pressure and lack edge and bottom
waters, and the clayey reservoir lacks a rigid framework. In
West Siberia, more than 150 oil fields of this kind were
discovered. It was proved that oil pools formed in bituminous
324 I.I. Nesterov / Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326
Fig. 1. Gas condensate factor of gas-condensate pools of the Urengoi field vs.
alkalinity coefficient (Na + K)/(Ca + Mg) determined from the concentrations
of absorbed cations in aqueous extracts of the host clayey rocks. Compiled by
I.I. Nesterov after A.M. Brekhuntsov and V.N. Borodkin (2008).
clayey rocks in situ from the OM of the host rocks. Note that
the oil flow from such clayey pools sometimes reaches
2500–5000 m3/day.
It is widely believed that oil migrates to pools from oil
source rocks. Such is believed to be the case with the
bituminous clayey, clay-siliceous, and clay-carbonate rocks of
the Bazhenovo, Tutleim, and Igrim Formations of West Siberia
(Kontorovich and Stasova, 1964; Kontorovich et al., 1967a,b,
1997).
If conventionally transferring all initial HC reserves of oil
pools back to Jurassic and lower Cretaceous bituminous rocks,
the amount of bitumoids will exceed that of dispersed OM.
In fact, the content of bitumoids in sedimentary rocks of the
Earth’s crust is no higher than 2%, even in bituminous oil
(kerogen) shales, and no anomalous changes are observed on
the maps of bitumoid distribution in coeval deposits.
Thus, the hypothesis (having being prevailed for 200 years)
of the accumulation of HC pools through vertical and lateral
HC migration from oil source formations is erroneous.
Oil and gas genesis and formation of HC pools are the
stages of the same process running in recent rock strata. Oil
and gas are produced from the OM of the host rocks, which
accumulates at the sedimentogenesis stage and then is con-
verted to liquid and gas HCs at particular temperatures and
pressures, when a critical power potential is reached and the
stressed state of rocks changes. The amount of this HC raw
material is 2.0–2.8 times greater than that in the oil source
OM of the host rocks.
The duration of pool formation is determined by the rate
of interaction of unpaired electrons with a flow of electrons
or donor hydrogen formed on discrete tectonic movements
induced by changes in the stressed state of rocks. After its
formation, an HC pool can migrate to other sites via hydro-
dynamic windows and open fractures, both natural and
man-induced (wells, mines, etc.).
The below model for the natural genesis of oil and
combustible HC gases and formation of their pools ignores
migration of HCs beyond their recent pools and serves as a
basis for developing engineering technologies of production
of artificial HC pools. These technologies imply a choice of
a natural rock stratum with particular temperature, pressure,
and concentration of dispersed OM having a required internal
energy potential owing to unpaired electrons (determined by
EPR spectroscopy) around carbon nuclei.
Tentative data show that the concentration of paramagnetic
centers in rocks must be no lower than (500−700)⋅1017 spin/g.
These values are determined for every area for each stratum
system planning. In nature, a required change in the stressed
state of rocks, calculated from Poisson’s ratio and distribution
of rock pressure throughout the Protod’yakonov “arch”, is
reached on hydrofracturing (“ignition” energy), when powerful
electromagnetic fields appear as a result of rock microdislo-
cations. These fields favor the formation of methyl and
methylene radicals giving rise to liquid and gas hydrocarbons.
This model implies HC migration only within a local area
constrained by existing oil-water or gas-water contacts. During
the in situ oil and gas formation, solids transform to liquids,
with the volume of the latter increasing 2.0 to 2.8 times, and
HCs migrate from uplifted trap zones downsection of the bed
in the hydrodynamic regime. In closed traps, this process
causes an abnormally high formation pressure, which leads to
a more rapid attenuation of oil formation, i.e., under the same
geochemical, thermodynamic, and energy conditions and with
the same rock volume, the pools with an abnormally high
pressure have lower HC reserves than the pools of hydrody-
namically open stratum systems. In the latter systems, adjacent
to the basement uplifts with permeable rocks, HCs migrate
from the source of oil formation both up- and downsection of
the reservoir.
In stripped pools and in natural faults and fracture zones
of the overlying rocks, HCs migrate from high-pressure to
low-pressure zones. In most fractures, however, the presence
of oil is explained not by its migration from pools but by its
in situ formation in the fraction during rock dislocations,
which rules out the presence of commercial oil reserves.
Other conditions being equal, catagenesis of OM of the
same class successively gives rise to the following pools: dry
gas, heavy naphthene oils, fat gas, oil–gas, gas condensate,
oil–gas condensate, and oil. Formation of gas condensate pools
through the destruction of oil pools is unlikely. For reduced
OM capable to produce HCs, this sequence shifts toward the
conditions with the smaller number of catagenesis stages as
compared with oxidized OM.
When turning to graphs of elemental carbon and hydrogen
content in kerogen of the dispersed OM, the hydrogen content
is apparently declining, whereas that of the carbon is rising
as the degree of catagenesis increases, although the hydrogen
 I.I. Nesterov / Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326
concentration is rising at low catagenesis together with the
growth in the OM class number. This pattern determines the
spatial distribution of liquid and gas HCs in any sedimentary
basin.
In the vertical sections of these basins, the number of gas
pools increases in the upper beds of sedimentary rocks. The
lateral sections have regional stratigraphic levels, at which oil
and gas pools are usually localized. This is obviously related
to paleogeography as well as the type of initial OM, which
not always depends on the conditions of OM accumulation
and trap size. Rather than static tectonics based on the
anticlinal hypothesis of oil reservoir formation it is the type
of OM that determines prediction of oil and gas presence. This
leads to the main conclusion: Each type of OM (sapropelic or
humic), and even subtype, always includes organic compounds
capable to generate oil and gas. The OM distribution with a
constant discreteness of 0.5% by hydrogen and 2.0% by
carbon is arbitrary. It would be more reasonable to establish
the discrete distribution of compounds or their groups in any
OM and use it to recognize classes of organic compounds.
Under particular PT-conditions, each class has its own energy
level and can produce a particular amount of particular HC
and heterogeneous liquid and gas compounds.
One of the most informative parameters determining the
petroleum potential of stratum systems is the number of
methyl and methylene groups per gram of OM kerogen and
its energy state determined by EPR spectroscopy from the
concentration of paramagnetic centers (Nesterov, 2007). Note
that unpaired electrons, methyl and methylene groups, and
methane are lacking in the initial OM (healthy cells of plants
and animals, including man) or are present in concentrations
below their detection limits. As mentioned above, at the
diagenesis stage, these compounds appear in muds and soils
in contents of (10−20)⋅1020 units/g, or up to (1−5)⋅1017 spin/g.
The above data give an insight into the main technological
parameters of natural formation of HC pools. In a stratum
system with stable PT-conditions, this process requires OM
with a sufficient concentration of paramagnetic centers and
conditions favorable for its irradiation by electrons appearing
during changes in the stressed state of petroliferous rocks. For
engineering technology, stratum systems with natural condi-
tions (temperature, pressure, and presence of OM with calcu-
lated concentrations of paramagnetic centers) are chosen, and
conditions imitating tectonic processes caused by rock stress
changes are artificially created.
Such processes are triggered on hydrofracturing by special
solutions (gels) fixing the new pore space by hydrophobized
proppants or high-strength sand with rounded mineral and rock
grains. At the particular rate of hydrofracturing, powerful
electromagnetic fields with an electron flow arise in the
stratum system. These electrons interact with unpaired elec-
trons of rock OM, thus producing liquid and gas HCs.
When dealing with rocks similar to the Nazym type of West
Siberia or the Domanik Shale of the Volga–Ural Oil Field,
the technologies imply artificial fracturing creation.
In West Siberia, commercial amounts of technogenous oil
can be produced from the stratum systems of the Bazhenovo
325
Formation (Salym type of rocks) with natural flaggy bedding
and foliation and from rocks with conchoidal fracture (Enitor
type) and calcareous bituminous rocks of the Abalak and
Tutleim Formations (Nazym type). In other regions, the same
conditions exist in Jurassic rocks of the southern and eastern
coasts of England (Kimmeridge Clay Formation), in some
sections of the Green River shales, USA, in combustible shales
in the Leningrad Region, etc.
In West Siberia, the above technology was applied to
perform a commercial experiment in well 592-R drilled in the
Salymskaya area, which included all known means for
inducing oil inflow from the Bazhenovo Formation, up to the
use of oil patch. These tests revealed no oil and gas shows.
Afterwards, the Bazhenovo bituminous clays were subjected
to hydrofracturing and injection of 10 tons of proppant at
41.2 MPa.
Then, the well began flowing, yielding 60 m3 oil per day.
Ten days after, the oil production decreased to 26 m3/day. The
stratum worked in this regime for 1.5 years. The same results
were obtained at the Surgutneftegaz Joint-Stock Company,
RITEK, and other companies. Tentative estimates show that
the technogenous resources of the Bazhenovo Formation can
annually yield up to 750 mln m3 oil; those in England, about
15 bln m3; and similar resources in the USA, about 20 bln m3.
Evaluation of the technogenous oil resources of the world’s
bituminous clayey rocks calls for special experiments. It is
beyond doubt that the technogenous oil resources of black
shales (and gray-colored clayey rocks of the Earth’s crust in
the future) are also huge and commensurate with those of
common carbonate and terrigenous reservoirs.
Conclusions
The strategy of the Russian fuel-energy security is as
follows: Since the oil reserves have been exhausted and the
oil production from common reservoirs (porous and fractured)
has decreased, a fundamentally new type of reservoir (bazhen-
ite) with natural HC pools must be urgently introduced, and
technogenous (artificial) oil and gas pools in clayey, clay-si-
liceous, siliceous, clay-carbonate, and clay-siliceous-carbonate
bituminous rocks must be formed. This will increase oil
production in West Siberia to 700–800 mln m3/year.
The reported data completely or partly agree with the
fundamental works of A.E. Kontorovich and are a reliable
basis for the Russian fuel-energy security.
References
Brekhuntsov, A.M., Borodkin, V.N., 2008. The geologic structure and
petroleum potential of the Urengoi petroliferous region by the example of
the Urengoi field. Gornye Vedomosti, No. 1, 20–35.
Fomin, A.N., 2004. Maturity of organic matter and petroleum potential of
Paleozoic deposits in the West Siberian basin. Geologiya i Geofizika
(Russian Geology and Geophysics) 45 (7), 833–842 (786–793).
Hunt, J.M., 1979. Petroleum Geochemistry and Geology. W.H. Free-
man & Co., San Francisco.
326 I.I. Nesterov / Russian Geology and Geophysics 50 (2009) 320–326
Kashirtsev, V.A., Kontorovich, A.E., 2006. Natural bitumens of the Olenek
uplift (Siberian Platform), in: Natural Bitumens and Heavy Oils [in
Russian]. Nedra, St. Petersburg, pp. 145–147.
Kontorovich, A.E., Melenevskii, V.N., 1988. Doctrine on the main oil
formation phase and its place in the sedimentary-migration theory of
naphthide genesis. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR. Ser. Geol., No. 1, 3–13.
Kontorovich, A.E., Stasova, O.F., 1964. Geochemistry of oils of the West
Siberian Lowland. Geologiya i Geofizika 5 (2), 13–24.
Kontorovich, A.E., Gurari, F.G., Fotiadi, E.E., 1967a. The main regularities
of formation and localization of oil and gas pools in Mesozoic deposits
of the West Siberian Plate. Geologiya i Geofizika 8 (1), 3–12.
Kontorovich, A.E., Parparova, G.M., Trushkov, P.A., 1967b. Metamorphism
of organic matter and some questions of petroleum presence (by the
example of Mesozoic deposits of the West Siberian Lowland). Geologiya
i Geofizika 8 (2), 16–29.
Kontorovich, A.E., Nesterov, I.I., Salmanov, F.K., Surkov, V.S., Trofi-
muk, A.A., Erv’e, Yu.G., 1975. Geology of Oil and Gas of West Siberia
[in Russian]. Nedra, Moscow.
Kontorovich, A.E., Bogorodskaya, L.I., Golyshev, S.I., 1985. Distribution of
stable carbon isotopes in sedicahites of different genetic nature. Geologiya
i Geofizika (Soviet Geology and Geophysics) 26 (7), 3–11 (1–8).
Kontorovich, A.E., Burshtein, L.M., Zhidkova, L.V., Melenevskii, V.N., 1997.
Model of catagenesis of organic matter (by example of the Bazhenovka
Formation). Geologiya i Geofizika (Russian Geology and Geophysics) 38
(6), 1070–1078 (1107–1115).
Kontorovich, A.E., Dobretsov, N.L., Laverov, N.P., Korzhubaev, A.G.,
Livshits, V.R., 1999. Energy strategy of Russia in the 21st century. Vestnik
RAN 69 (9), 771–784.
Kontorovich, A.E., Kashirtsev, V.A., Timoshina, I.D., Kim, N.S., 2005.
Geochemistry of the Precambrian oils of Eurasia and Australia. Petroleum
Frontiers 20 (3), 11–26.
Kontorovich, A.E., Kashirtsev, V.A., Korzhubaev, A.G., 2006. The strategy
of gas industry of eastern Russia. Gazovyi Biznes, No. 12, 21–31.
Kontorovich, A.E., Kashirtsev, V.A., Korzhubaev, A.G., Safronov, A.F.,
2007a. A general scheme for the formation of petroleum complexes in
eastern Russia. Mineral’nye Resursy Rossii. Ekonomika i Upravlenie,
No. 1, 13–25.
Kontorovich, A.E., Kashirtsev, V.A., Moskvin, V.I., Burshtein, L.M., Zem-
skaya, T.I., Kalmychkov, G.V., Kostyreva, E.A., Khlystov, O.M., 2007b.
Petroleum potential of Baikal deposits. Russian Geology and Geophysics
(Geologiya i Geofizika) 48 (12), 1046–1053 (1346–1356).
Neruchev, S.G., 1969. Oil-Producing Formations and Oil Migration [in
Russian]. Nedra, Leningrad.
Nesterov, I.I., 1964. Types of oil and gas pools, in: Geology of the USSR
[in Russian]. Nedra, Moscow, Vol. 44, Part 2, pp. 39–42.
Nesterov, I.I., 2007. The Problems of Oil and Gas Geology in the Second
Half of the 20th Century [in Russian]. Izd. SO RAN, Novosibirsk.
Nesterov, I.I., Shpil’man, V.I., 1987. The Theory of Petroleum Accumulation
[in Russian]. Nedra, Moscow.
Ryabukhin, G.E., Nesterov, I.I., 1960. Geothermal observations in deep wells
in the Omsk Region. Sovetskaya Geologiya, No. 1, 129–134.
Tissot, B.P., Welte, D.H., 1978. Petroleum Formation and Occurrence.
Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Vassoevich, N.B., 1967. The theory of sedimentary-migration genesis of oil
(historical review and modern state of the art). Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR.
Ser. Geol., No. 11, 135–156.
Vassoevich, N.B., 1986. Geochemistry of Organic Matter and Oil Genesis [in
Russian]. Nauka, Moscow.
Vyshemirskii, V.S., Kontorovich, A.E., Trofimuk, A.A., 1971. Migration of
Dispersed Bitumoids [in Russian]. Nauka, Novosibirsk.
Yolkin, E.A., Kontorovich, A.E., Bakharev, N.K., Belyaev, S.Yu., Var-
lamov, A.I., Izokh, N.G., Kanygin, A.V., Kashtanov, V.A., Kirda, N.P.,
Klets, A.G., Kontorovich, V.A., Krasnov, V.I., Krinin, V.A., Moi-
seev, S.A., Obut, O.T., Saraev, S.V., Sennikov, N.V., Tishchenko, V.M.,
Filippov, Yu.F., Khomenko, A.V., Khromykh, V.G., 2007. Paleozoic
facies megazones in the basement of the West Siberian geosyncline.
Russian Geology and Geophysics (Geologiya i Geofizika) 48 (6), 491–504
(633–650).