U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2008–3051

July 2008

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the 

Timan-Pechora Basin Province, Russia, 2008

Printed on recycled paper

Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed 

the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the Timan-Pechora 

Basin Province in Russia as part of the USGS Circum-Arctic 

Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal program. Geologically, 

the Timan-Pechora Basin Province is a triangular-shaped 

cratonic block bounded by the northeast-southwest trending Ural Mountains and the northwest-southeast trending 

Timan Ridge. The northern boundary is shared with the 

South Barents Sea Province (fig. 1). The Timan-Pechora 

Basin Province has a long history of oil and gas exploration 

and production. The first field was discovered in 1930 and, 

after 75 years of exploration, more than 230 fields have been 

discovered and more than 5,400 wells have been drilled. This 

has resulted in the discovery of more than 16 billion barrels 

of oil and 40 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Several studies have presented geological summaries 

of the Timan-Pechora Basin Province and the potential for 

its remaining oil and gas resources (for example, Ulmishek, 

1982; Lindquist, 1999; Ulmishek, 2000). This report summarizes a reassessment of the undiscovered oil and gas potential 

of the province, as the last assessment was completed in 

2000 (Ulmishek, 2000). The total petroleum system and three 

assessment units defined by the USGS for the assessment in 

2000 were adopted for this reassessment.

Geologic Definition of Assessment Units

The USGS defined the Domanik-Paleozoic Total 

Petroleum System in the Timan-Pechora Basin Province. 

Several petroleum source rocks are postulated to be present, 

including source rocks in Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, 

Carboniferous, and Permian strata; of these, the Middle 

Devonian Domanik Formation is the most important 

petroleum source rock.

Three assessment units (AU) were defined geologically 

and encompass the foredeep and platform areas of the 

province (fig. 2). The Northwest Izhma Depression AU 

(fig. 1) is defined to include potential reservoirs within the 

northwestern part of the province, where reservoir rocks 

and source rocks mainly range from thin to absent on the 

platform; this AU was not quantitatively assessed. The 

Main Basin Platform AU (fig. 1) encompasses all traps and 

reservoirs in the central part of the province, an area that is 

characterized by a complex tectonic and structural history. 

The Foredeep Basins AU (fig. 1) is defined to include 

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the 

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated means of 

1.6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 9 trillion cubic 

feet of natural gas north of the Arctic Circle in the TimanPechora Basin Province of Russia.

reservoirs and traps within the foredeep basins of the Ural orogenic belt in the 

eastern part of the province. Each of the latter two AUs was evaluated in its 

entirety for undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources, but the 

assessment results reported here (table 1) are only for those portions of each AU 

that are north of the Arctic Circle.

Resource Summary

The estimated means for conventional resources in portions of the Main 

Basin Platform AU and Foredep Basins AU north of the Arctic Circle are 

1,668 million barrels of oil (MMBO), 9,062 billion cubic feet of natural gas 

Arctic Circle

40°E 45°E 50°E 55°E 60°E 65°E 70°E 70°N

65°N

60°N

200 MILES

0

0

200 KILOMETERS

KARA 

SEA

BARENTS 

SEA

RUSSIA

MAIN BASIN

PLATFORM AU

NORTHWEST

IZHMA

DEPRESSION

 AU

BASINS AU

FOREDEEP

PAY-KHOY RIDGE

URAL MOUNTAINS

TIMAN RIDGE

A

A’

Figure 1. Timan-Pechora Basin Province of Russia (red line). Three assessment 

units (AU; yellow lines) were defined in this study: Northwest Izhama Depression 

AU, Main Platform Basin AU, Foredeep Basins AU. Note that portions of each AU 

extend south of the Arctic Circle. A-A’, line of section in figure 2.
(BCFG), and 204 million barrels of natural-gas liquids (MMBNGL) 

(table 1). Nearly all of the undiscovered conventional oil resources 

are estimated to be in the Main Basin Platform AU, and 60 percent of 

the nonassociated gas is estimated to be in the Foredeep Basins AU. 

Volumes of gas potentially in a basin-centered gas accumulation in the 

Foredeep Basins AU were not assessed.

References

Lindquist, S.J., 1999, The Timan-Pechora Basin Province of northwest 

Arctic Russia: Domanik–Paleozoic Total Petroleum System: U.S. 

Geological Survey Open-File Report 99–50–G, 40 p.

Ulmishek, G., 1982, Petroleum geology and resource assessment of 

the Timan-Pechora Basin, USSR, and the adjacent Barents-northern 

Kara Shelf: Argonne, Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory, Energy 

and Environmental Systems Division, Report ANL/EES–TM–199, 

197 p.

A

WNW

A’

ESE

Timan-Pechora Basin Province

Timan

Ridge

Northwest Izhma Depression AU Main Basin Platform AU

Ural

Mts. Foredeep

Basins AU

0 60 KILOMETERS

Horizontal scale

0 60 MILES

Carbonate rocks

Siliciclastic rocks

Faults

Hydrocarbon accumulations

Unconformities

MZ

MZ

Mesozoic

P2

P2-P1 P1

P1-C C

Permian, upper

P1

P1-C

Permian, lower

C Carboniferous

D3 Devonian, upper

D2 Devonian, middle

D1 Devonian, lower

S Silurian

O Ordovician

EXPLANATION

S.L.

2

4

6

8 

KILOMETERS

S.L.

2

4

6

8 

10

12

KILOMETERS

Basement

Basement

Basement

Basement

O-S

D3

D3

D3

D2

D2

D2

D1

D1

S

S

D

S

S

S O O

O

Figure 2. Generalized structure cross section of the Timan-Pechora Basin Province. Location of section shown in 

figure 1. From Lindquist (1999).

Ulmishek, G., 2000, Timan-Pechora Basin: Geologic Province 1008, 

in U.S. Geological Survey World Energy Assessment Team, U.S. 

Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000–description 

and results: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS–60, 

four CD–ROM set, Disk 2.

For Further Information

Assessment results are available at the USGS Energy Program 

website, http://energy.usgs.gov/arctic, or contact Donald L. Gautier, 

Task Leader for the USGS Circum–Arctic Oil and Gas Resource 

Appraisal (gautier@usgs.gov).

Timan-Pechora Basin Province Assessment Team: Christopher J. 

Schenk, Kenneth J. Bird, Ronald R. Charpentier, Donald L. Gautier, 

David W. Houseknecht, Timothy R. Klett, Thomas Moore, Mark J. 

Pawlewicz, Janet Pitman, and Marilyn E. Tennyson.

Total Petroleum Systems 

(TPS) 

and Assessment Units (AU)

AU

Probability

Field 

Type

Largest 

Expected 

Field 

Size

Total Undiscovered Resources

Oil (MMBO) Gas (BCFG) NGL (MMBNGL)

F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean

Domanik-Paleozoic TPS

Northwest Izhma 

Depression AU 0.02

Main Basin Platform AU 1.0

Oil 549 762 1,504 2,852 1,613 918 1,942 3,975 2,131 20 45 95 50

Gas 1,404 895 2,476 6,143 2,859 19 54 190 64

Foredeep Basins AU 0.54

Oil 163 0 0 234 55 0 0 327 72 0 0 7 2

Gas 1,946 0 3,658 12,094 4,000 0 74 272 88

Total Conventional

 Resources 1,668 9,062 204

Not quantitatively assessed

[MMBO, million barrels of oil. BCFG, billion cubic feet of gas. MMBNGL, million barrels of natural gas liquids. Results shown are fully risked estimates. For gas accumulations, 

all liquids are included as NGL (natural gas liquids). Undiscovered gas resources are the sum of nonassociated and associated gas. F95 represents a 95 percent chance of at 

least the amount tabulated; other fractiles are defined similarly. AU probability is the chance of at least one accumulation of minimum size within the AU. TPS, total petroleum 

system; AU, assessment unit. Gray shading indicates not applicable]

Table 1. Timan-Pechora Basin Province assessment results, north of the Arctic Circle.