Petroleum Geology and Resources of Volga-Urals Province, USSR

James A. Peterson, James W. Clarke

The Volga-Ural petroleum province generally coincides with the Volga-Ural regional high, a broad upwarp of the east-central part of the Russian (East European) platform. The central part of the province is occupied by the Tatar arch, which contains the major share of the oil fields of the province. The Komi-Perm arch forms the northeastern part of the regional high, and the Zhigulevsko-Pugachev and Orenburg arches make up the southern part. These arches are separated from one another by elongate trenchlike downwarps. The platform sedimentary cover overlies an Archean crystalline basement and consists of seven main sedimentation cycles of late Precambrian through Triassic age.

Approximately 600 oil fields and gas fields and 2,000 pools have been found in the Volga-Ural province. Nine productive sequences are recognized; these are, in general, the same as the sedimentation cycles, although some subdivisions have been added. The clastic section of Middle and early Late Devonian age contains the major recoverable oil accumulations, including the supergiant Romashkino field.

Cumulative production to 1980 is estimated at 30-35 billion bbl of oil equivalent, identified reserves at about 10 billion bbl of oil equivalent, and undiscovered resources at about 7 billion bbl of oil equivalent. Identified reserves of natural gas are estimated at 100 tcf and undiscovered resources at 63 tcf.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91043©1986 AAPG Annual Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, June 15-18, 1986.