The South Kyrtayel Oilfield, Timan–Pechora basin: geological history and preliminary development plan

ABSTRACT: The South Kyrtayel oilfield lies on the western margin of the Pechora–Kozhva Swell, a major inverted Palaeozoic rift element of the Timan– Pechora basin. The field was discovered in 1976 but is only now being developed by Bitech–Silur who obtained a licence over it in 1995. Like many fields nearby, the South Kyrtayel field contains modest volumes of oil and gas in Middle Devonian sandstones capped by Upper Devonian shales: current estimates of hydrocarbons in-place are 70 MMBBLS of oil and 70 BCF of gas. The fluviatile and near-shore marine Middle Devonian reservoir sandstones were deposited in a rift basin. The trap is an anticlinal structure bounded by a north–south trending fault. The trap developed in the Devonian and was modified during the Carboniferous to Jurassic. There has been considerable uplift of the field since maximum burial and oil charge in the Triassic