FSUE VNIIOkeangeologia named after I. S. Gramberg:

V. L. Ivanov, Chief Researcher, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, phone: +7 (812) 714-82-17

From the point of view of general geology, Russian east Arctic sea shelf has very high potential of oil and gas bearing. Nevertheless, the official statistics (1993) estimates its initial resource as being less than 15% of the total volume of the arctic sea shelf and attributes it to the D2 category. This may be explained by the low knowledge of the water areas of the Laptev Sea, East Siberian and Chukotka seas. The air bone geophysical survey was made in the 1960-ies, the average seismic exploration density is 0.03 rkm/km2 (normally 0.5 rkm/km²); no deep borehole is drilled in the area. As a result, no such important parameters of sedimentary cover have been confirmed by direct observations as stratigraphy, lithological composition, hydrocarbon shows. The structural and tectonic zoning of the sea areas is indistinct.

As the first step, it is suggested to drill 1 or 2 parametric boreholes in the Laptev Sea, to hold the air geophysical imaging in the East Siberian and Chukotka seas in order to verify their structural and tectonic zoning for choosing locations for future deep drilling.

1. Ivanov V. L., Kaminskiy V. D., Poselov V. A., Suprunenko O. I. Problemy Arktiki i Antarktiki – Problems of the Arctic and Antarctic. 2009, No. 2 (82), pp. 20–26.

2. Glebovskiy V. Yu., Verba V. V., Kaminskiy V. D. Potentsialnye polya Arkticheskogo basseyna: istoriya izucheniya, analogovye i tsifrovye obobshcheniya. 60 let v Arktike, Antarktike i Mirovom okeane: sb. nauch. tr (Potential Fields of the Arctic basin: history of researchings, analogue and numerical generalizations. 60 years in Arctic, Antarctic and World Ocean: collection of scientific works). Saint Petersburg: VNIIOkeangeologia, 2008, pp. 93–109.

3. Geologiya i poleznye iskopaemye Rossii. T. 5. Arkticheskie i dalnevostochnye morya. Kn. 1. Arkticheskie morya (Russian geology and mineral resourses. Vol. 5. Arctic and far eastern seas. Book 1. Arctic seas). Under the editorship of I. S. Gramberg, V. L. Ivanov, Yu. E. Pogrebitskiy. Saint Petersburg: VSEGEI, 2004, 468 p.

4. Kim B. I., Evdokimova N. K., Suprunenko O. I., Yashin D. S. Geologiya nefti i gaza – Oil and gas geology. 2007, No. 2, pp. 49–60.

5. Ivanov V. L. Geologicheskie predposylki neftegazonosnosti shelfa morya Laptevykh . Rossiyskaya Arktika: geologicheskaya istoriya, minerageniya, geoekologiya (Geological premises of oil and gas content of Laptev sea shelf. Russian Arctic: geological history, mineralogy, geoecology). Saint Petersburg: VNIIOkeangeologia, 2002, pp. 202–208.

6. Poselov V. A., Kaminskiy V. D., Ivanov V. L., et al. Stroenie i evolyutsiya zemnoy kory oblasti sochleneniya podnyatiy Ameraziyskogo subbasseyna s vostochno-arkticheskim shelfom. Stroenie i istoriya razvitiya litosfery (Structure and evolution of the earth's crust of the articulation area of the American-Eurasian sub-basin with eastern-arctic shelf rising. Structure and history of litosphere development). Moscow, Saint Petersburg: Paulsen Editions, 2010, pp. 599–637.