Researchers from the Laboratory of Theoretical Bases of Hydrocarbon Evaluation Potential at IPPG SB RAS have assessed undiscovered hydrocarbon resources within the well-studied portion of the West Siberian Oil and Gas Province ―the area known as the Brekhuntsov Belt that holds already discovered hydrocarbon deposits.
The IPGG’s forecasting is focused on the Jurassic and Cretaceous complexes within the continental portion of the West Siberian Oil and Gas Province that serves as Russia's primary petroleum region. The total petroleum initially-in-place (TPIIP) in this area amounts to over 62 trillion cubic meters of gas and approximately 100 billion tons of oil. The research conducted by the Novosibirsk scientists allows estimating volumes beyond that, or future hydrocarbon discoveries.
In their work, specialists employed advanced methodologies analyzing the size distribution of hydrocarbon deposits heavily leveraging the Truncated Pareto Distribution (TPD). The probabilistic characteristics of initial geological and potential resources were determined using Monte Carlo simulation accounting for variations in the total number of accumulations and their aggregate reserves.
Based on the simulation results, researchers at IPGG SB RAS concluded that, in addition to known fields, the studied area of the West Siberian Oil and Gas Province holds at least 43 trillion cubic meters of gas and 61 billion tons of oil (with 90% probability). These resources are most likely concentrated in small and very small fields. Identifying them is of special concern, given the gradual depletion of already known large deposits.
Considering future developments in computational analysis and exploration activities, IPGG SB RAS specialists are seeking to refine the calculated estimates of sizes of undiscovered hydrocarbon accumulations.
This work was conducted within project FWZZ-2026-0045 of the State Program for Fundamental Scientific Research.
For more details on the research results see the article by :
Burshtein L.M., Livshits V.R., Kozyrev A.N., Sedykh A.N. – Undiscovered hydrocarbon resources of well-studied territories and complexes within the West Siberian oil and gas province // Russian Geology and Geophysics – 2026 DOI: 10.15372/GIG2026186
Published by IPGG Press Service