All-Russia Research Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources of the World Ocean (VNIIOkeangeologiya) (Saint Petersburg, Russia):

Kaminskiy V. D., Director, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences

Glebovskiy V. Yu., Head of Department, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, e-mail: gleb@vniio.ru

Egorova A. V., First Category Engineer

Saint Petersburg State University (Saint Petersburg, Russia):

Chernykh A. A., Assistant Professor, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences

Not enough geological and geophysical data are collected in Arctic Ocean and particularly in the eastern part of Russian Arctic shelf even for regional geological study. Laptev sea, East Siberian sea, Chukchi sea and northern part of Kara sea are the least studied regions, regarding magnetic and gravity fields. Aeromagnetic and gravity surveys in that regions had been already carried out in 1960–1970. With rare exception, amount and quality of collected data make it possible to determine only general features of potential fields within major geological structures. Realization of new airborne geophysical (magnetic and gravity) surveys in considered regions is constantly delayed in spite of opinion of leading Russian geologists and geophysicists, who believe in its outstanding importance for the growth of hydrocarbon resources. The main reason of the postponement is connected with underestimation of important role of potential fields data by State officials and heads of oil companies, during the solving of problems, connected with oil and gas exploration. Any new airborne geophysical surveys in Barents, Kara and Laptev seas are considered as ineffective because of good seismic data coverage. The new surveys in East-Siberian and Chukchi seas are not planned because both of them include the license areas, belonging to “Rosneft” oil company and other organizations, specialized only on seismic and drilling methods of oil and gas exploration. It is reasonable that accurate definition of the hydrocarbon resources in Russian Arctic seas and adjacent deep-water basin is impossible without modern airborne geophysical surveys. Obviously, that seismic and drilling works must be carried out after airborne geophysical investigations, which are very informative for allocation of the most prospective areas of hydrocarbon deposits. These investigations will make it possible to get new high-precision potential field data in less studied regions in short terms. Thereby, these investigations will be an important contribution for both understanding of Arctic Ocean geology and estimation of its oil and gas resources. Production costs, connected with new airborne surveys, will be quickly paid off due to decreasing of amount and cost of future seismic and drilling works. The high performance of the surveys may be achieved only using modern measuring or navigational equipment and modern principles of field work, which are considered in this article.

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