Estimation of oil and gas potential of blocks near the Brygadyrivka salt diapir by using neotectonic criteria

Abstract

The problem of search for new perspective structures near the salt diapir which are possible hydrocarbon traps is discussed in this article.

Presentable statistical data which were received by previous researchers in different oil-and-gas provinces, confirm dependence between neotectonic activity of structural forms and parameters of their oil-and-gas content.

Therefore, the use of neotectonic criteria is expedient on the search stage of oil and gas structures.

Direction, speed and amplitude of the newest tectonic movements are reflected in features of landscape, heights of relief, picture of a hydrographic network.

The definition of the Brygadyrivka salt diapir border and the results of forecasting perspective near the salt diapir blocks which are hydrocarbon traps using landscape indicators have been described in this article.

The authors used the V.P. Filosofov's morphometric method to characterise neotectonic movements of the Earth's crust.

Graphic decomposition of relief on the abstract surfaces of different orders (by R. Horton) and their mathematical processing (construction of maps of differences or maps of gradients) are basis of this method.

The location of neotectonically-active structures was predicted by using integrated processing of all morphometric maps and results of visual landscape-geoindication interpretation of topographic maps. The sign, total amplitude and gradient of neotectonic movements were calculated for the predicted structures and blocks.

The authors noted that the oil and gas fields were characterized by average values of amplitudes and gradients of neotectonic movements.

These neotectonic characteristics were used to rate the oil and gas potential of predicted structures.