Journal of Petroleum Geology,Vol.

46 (2), April 2023, pp 1-30 1

BITUMEN RESOURCES OF THE

EAST SIBERIAN BASIN

Liu Zuodong1*, Graham Blackbourn2, Wen Zhixing1, Wang Hongjun1,

He Zhengjun1, Ma Feng1, Liu Xiaobing1, Chen Ruiying1
and Bian Haiguang1

The so-called East Siberian “Basin” extends over an ancient continental block, the Siberian
Platform, and is made up of a number of smaller-scale basement arches and basins with a
variable sedimentary cover of mostly Proterozoic and Palaeozoic ages.The basin hosts the oldest
large-scale petroleum systems known. Proterozoic (“Riphean”: 1650-650 Ma) marine source
rocks, which were deposited on the passive margins which surrounded much of the Platform,
generated hydrocarbons as they were buried, folded and thermally matured during a series of
mostly Late Proterozoic to Cambrian continental collisions, with the final collision taking place
in the Early Cretaceous along the northeastern (Verkhoyan) margin. The hydrocarbons were
transported by long-distance migration to reservoirs in the sedimentary successions which drape
basement uplifts, there forming giant oil and gas accumulations which were sealed by extensive
Cambrian evaporites. Subsequent uplift and unroofing, especially in the north and east of the
Platform where the seal is not present, led to degradation of the oil to leave giant accumulations
of bitumen, defined here as petroleum with an API gravity of less than 10° which is immobile
under reservoir conditions. A significantly younger petroleum system, which may still be active, is
present in the Vilyui Basin in the NE of the Siberian Platform. This basin was initiated as a mid-
Devonian rift and has a later Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fill.
Bitumen accumulations in the East Siberian Basin occur mainly in Precambrian, Cambrian
and Permian reservoir rocks, and began to form from precursor oils during the Permian. Around
twenty-five named fields have been described, many of which comprise portions of more extensive
belts of bitumen occurrence. Although geological mapping of natural resources in the East Siberian
Basin has been carried out since the 19th century, the region remains under-explored and none
of the bitumen accumulations has yet been developed.
An attempt is made in this paper to catalogue and map all recorded occurrences of bitumen
throughout the East Siberian Basin. Regional geological studies have been conducted in order
to understand the origin and habitat of each occurrence. So far as possible, data on the areal
extent and stratigraphic thickness of each bitumen occurrence has been collated, together with
data on bitumen saturations and quality.These data were used to calculate resource volumes for
each accumulation from first principles.Thus the total bitumen resources within the East Siberian
Basin have been calculated as 24,640 MM (million) tonnes. Disregarding accumulations regarded
as either of insufficient resource-density or too small to merit consideration, this figure has been
reduced to 14,760 MM tonnes. Recoverable reserves, by analogy with comparable resources
worldwide, are calculated as 6100 MM tonnes (approximately 33,900 MM brl).
1
PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration
& Development, No 20, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District,
Beijing 100083, China.
2
Blackbourn Geoconsulting, 26 East Pier Street, Bo’ness, key words: East Siberian Basin, Siberian Platform,
West Lothian, EH51 9AB, Scotland, United Kingdom. Proterozoic, Palaeozoic, bitumen, hydrocarbons,
*Corresponding author: liuzd1223@petrochina.com.cn petroleum system, resource volume.

© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Petroleum Geology © 2023 Scientific Press Ltd
2 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
INTRODUCTION
This paper presents the main conclusions of a study
undertaken jointly by Petrochina and Blackbourn
Geoconsulting with the following primary purposes:
(i) to provide a brief description of all the known
bitumen accumulations in the East Siberian Basin; (ii)
to compare southern and northern areas of hydrocarbon
distribution in the basin and to analyse the processes
of bitumen formation; (iii) to estimate the bitumen
resources of the East Siberian Basin within each of
the identified fields, and to highlight potential sweet
spots. In this paper, the term “bitumen” refers to
petroleum with an API gravity of less than 10° (where
known) which is immobile under reservoir conditions,
essentially following the definition of Meyer and
de Witt (1990). Owing to the irregular and patchy
distribution of bitumen accumulations in the region,
none of which has yet been developed commercially,
a bitumen “field” is defined simply as any area within
which bitumens are known to have accumulated
and which has been given a name in the published
literature.
The limits of the East Siberian Basin are defined
by the margins of the Siberian Platform, an ancient
crustal block extending approximately from the Yenisei
River in the west to the Lena River in the east (Fig. 1).
The Platform covers an area of about 1,500,000 km2.
Although the term “basin” is widely used to describe
the structure of the Siberian Platform, it is a misnomer.
Precambrian basement, including Archaean, rises to the
surface in several parts of the so-called basin including
the Anabar and Aldan Arches (Fig. 1), owing in part
to a relict topography created by folding during the
Late Proterozoic Baikalian orogeny, and in part to the
creation of basement uplifts during later continental
collisions around the margins of the Platform. Several
similar arches are draped by sediment including the
Baikit and Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises* (Fig. 1). Basinal
areas, which comprise only restricted portions of the
East Siberian Platform, include the Tunguska Basin
(or Kureika Syncline) in the west and the Vilyui Basin
in the NE.
Almost 2100 hydrocarbon wells, including
development wells, are known to have been drilled
across the East Siberian Basin since the 1930s, leading
to the location of over a hundred commercial oil and
gas fields and other discoveries. Around two-thirds
of the wells and fields are located in the south of the
basin on the Baikit and Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises and
on the Angara-Lena Step on the southern flank of the
* The Russian term ‘anteclise’, often wrongly translated
as ‘anticline’, refers to a domal structure comprising an
ancient crystalline core draped by sediments, rather than
a fold structure.
latter structure (locations in Fig. 1). Some exploration
has also been undertaken in the Vilyui Basin in the
NE. Owing to limited exploration in central and far-
eastern areas of the East Siberian Basin, the level of
understanding of the petroleum geology is variable
both within individual sub-provinces and from one
part of the region to another (Clarke, 1994).
Petroleum systems responsible for most of the
hydrocarbons within the East Siberian Basin are
remarkably old by international standards, with
extensive and prolific Proterozoic (“Riphean”: 1650-
650 Ma) marine source rocks (Frolov et al., 2011; see
below). The most important reservoir rocks for both
conventional hydrocarbons and bitumen across the
Siberian Platform are Upper Precambrian (“Vendian”)
to Cambrian sandstones and carbonates (Starosel’tsev,
2002; Staroselt’tsev et al., 2013). Extensive Lower
Cambrian evaporites comprise a regional seal for
petroleum accumulations in the south of the basin
(Semenova, 1975). The evaporites were precipitated
to the south of a barrier-reef system which extended
across the Siberian Platform from approximately ESE
to WNW, with mostly deeper-marine carbonates and
shales deposited to the north (Fig. 2). The absence
of the evaporite seal in the north of the East Siberian
Basin accounts for the dearth of accumulations of
liquid hydrocarbons there, although some younger
fields containing mobile hydrocarbons, mostly gas,
are present in the Vilyui Basin. In parts of the north
of the basin, active petroleum systems comparable to
those in the south led to the formation of very large
oil accumulations in reservoirs draping basement
uplifts such as the Anabar, Olenek and Aldan Arches
(Fig. 1). Subsequently, uplift and partial unroofing
of these reservoirs resulted in biodegradation and
oxidation of the oil, and the formation of extensive
accumulations of heavy oil and bitumen. These and
similar accumulations elsewhere in the East Siberian
Basin comprise the main focus of this paper.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
An attempt is made here to catalogue and map all
the recorded occurrences of bitumen throughout the
East Siberian Basin, whether or not any appraisal or
commercial evaluation has been carried out. Regional
geological studies have been conducted with the
aim of understanding the origin and habitat of each
occurrence. So far as possible, data on the areal
extent and stratigraphic thickness of each bitumen
occurrence has been collated together with data on
bitumen saturations and quality. These data were used
to calculate resource volumes for each accumulation
from first principles.
The authors are not aware of any previous
comprehensive review of the bitumen resources of
 Laptev Sea
Tectonic Features

Kara Sea Boundary of major regional

A
UL structural feature
I NS
P EN
YR
IM Boundary of structural feature
TA

UDZHA
BASIN OLENEK Major fault
ARCH

V ER
K
SUKHANSK
BASIN Zone of marginal thrusting

HO
Y
ANABAR ARCH

AN
II MUNA
ARCH
PUTORAN Boundaries of Siberian Platform

BEL
Noril’sk STEP

I
T
and of adjacent basinal areas

SIN TA
BAKHAN
MA
VILYUI

LA
N UM
BASIN

SI CH

AGA
C P
Oil and gas fields

ARCHT
BAHE PER
N Yakutsk

KO U
NORTH Ust’-Maya
RECHEN DU H
STEP
YA RC
(K T U A
UR NG DDLE Oil field
EI US TURINSK SUGDZH
ER SAVILYUCHAN
K BASIN SADDLE
UCHUR-MAYA
A KA

CH
N
I
SY B III ZONE

AR

B YA
NC AS III’

YG
IN

AR
BAKHTA L IN

SINDYA
Gas field

T U RU K H AN ST EP
STEP

NT ASI TTA
E)

MP
SURINDAKON

BA EN
SIN V

SU
STEP

K
BA EZO
BE

P
NIN
KO BA

STE SK
N KH Gas & condensate field

MIR
N
STDROTA- L. CHUNKU

SI BA
STEP

H Y
EP M
IN

BA ER A-
DZVYU
B
Liu, Blackbourn et al.

A NEPA I’
IK

LE
IT KAMO
A ARCH ARCH

DD A
N

YE
Basement Features

N
KA
SATANG
TE

I
I C
LI

SE
S

I
E

R
Folded basement outcrop

ID

R.
EEVA

G
K
IRKINLIFT

Ye
E
UP

nis
OC IN
I

R
ISE

ei
-YEN

A
AYAN E

BL GUZ
B
PRE-SSYNCLIN Shallow basement regions
SAYAN - ANGARA
BASIN

ANGARA -LENA
Krasnoyarsk STEP Kovykta
PR I’ Cross-section lines
E
-S (see Figure 7)
AY
AN

II’
Irkutsk
0 100 200 300 400 500

Kilometres
3

Fig. 1. General location and structure map of the East Siberian Basin.
4 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
the East Siberian Basin which attempts to examine
all known occurrences in their geological context,
together with their origin. In their review of Russian
petroleum geology, Kashirtsev and Hein (2013)
stated that the best sources in the western literature
relating to bitumens in the East Siberian Basin were
the proceedings volumes of the World Petroleum
Congress (WPC) and the United Nations Institute for
Training and Research/United Nations Development
Programme (UNITAR/UNDP). The U.S. Geological
Survey reviewed Russian publications pertaining to
Siberian heavy oil and bitumen as part of its assessment
of world petroleum resources for the U.S. Government
(Meyer and Attanasi, 2003; Meyer and Freeman, 2006;
Meyer et al., 2007; Attanasi and Meyer, 2010). Meyer
and Freeman (2006) collated various early sources
of data on bitumen resources in the area, much of it
unpublished. Of particular interest in terms of early
exploration is a list they reproduced of conventional
and heavy oil fields in Eastern Siberia translated by
the Lawyers and Merchant’s translation bureau in
1950 from an unattributed source. Its lack of detail on
the precise location of each field, or of information
regarding them, does, however, illustrate the sparse
nature of useful data. We have attempted to identify all
of the fields listed. Literature searches show that later
references to the various fields commonly simply refer
back, explicitly or otherwise, to the same few original
sources, and genuinely new data on any of them is
seldom provided.
There is no internationally accepted definition of
heavy oils and bitumens. Rogers et al. (1974) and some
later authors specified that the viscosity which divides
crude oil from bitumen is 10,000 cP. Meyer and de
Witt (1990), who took account of the definitions of
the WPC and UNITAR/UNDP, classify heavy oils as
hydrocarbons with <25° API gravity which are mobile
in reservoir conditions, while immobile phases are
classed as bitumens. A more complex classification
is used in Russia based on the percentage of oil and
asphaltic components, together with their viscosity and
density. The term “maltha” is used to refer to highly
viscous heavy oil or mobile bitumen (Khalimov, 1983).
Ryka and Malishevskaya (1989) used the same term
for what they called “weathered” oils.
Fig. 3 summarises the names and corresponding
properties of heavy oils, bitumens and related
substances as defined by Khalimov (1983), and as
depicted graphically by Meyer and Freeman (2006)
and other authors. It is found in practice in the East
Siberian Basin that heavier bitumens classed as
“asphaltites” are only found at or immediately beneath
the surface, while those recovered from the subsurface
are classed as asphalts and malthas. In this paper, the
term “bitumen” refers to crude oil with an API gravity
of less than 10° (where known) which is immobile
under reservoir conditions, essentially following Meyer
and de Witt (1990).
Around twenty-five named bitumen fields have
been described in the East Siberian Basin, although
this number is somewhat arbitrary since many of them
comprise portions of more extensive belts of bitumen
occurrence (Fig. 4). Although geological mapping of
natural resources has been carried out over the East
Siberian Basin since the 19th century, the region
remains under-explored and the bitumen resources are
still quite poorly known. They are therefore regarded in
terms of resource assessment as being located within
a frontier area.
In undertaking the present study, we have utilised
the sources listed above, and have also undertaken
a thorough analysis of the Russian-language (and
sparse international) literature on the geology of the
East Siberian Basin – including but not restricted to
the petroleum geology – in an attempt to understand
the nature of the bitumen accumulations from first
principles, rather than by simply collating earlier
reports of these resources. It seems probable that many
of the named bitumen accumulations were originally
identified during field studies in which bitumen-bearing
rocks were noted and documented, but with no further
substantial work undertaken on them. In view of the
remote location of many of these accumulations, and
the logistical difficulties in working in these areas,
often in harsh conditions, this is understandable.
Another difficulty in compiling information on bitumen
accumulations from the literature is that different
authors use the same names to cover bitumen-bearing
areas of varying extent. For example, the term “Olenek
field” is sometimes used to refer to all of the bitumen
accumulations located over the Olenek Arch (location
in Fig. 4), while other authors limit this term to the
major occurrence of bitumen within Permian reservoirs
on the northern flank of the Arch, and give different
names to other bitumen accumulations in this area.
The only bitumen accumulation in Eastern Siberia
on which a focused appraisal programme appears
to have been undertaken with a serious view to
commercial development is in fact that in Permian
reservoir rocks at the Olenek field. At present no active
appraisal is known of any of the bitumen accumulations
within Eastern Siberia, nor is there any ongoing
exploration for new accumulations; neither are there
any records of commercial development of any of the
accumulations.
GEOLOGICAL SETTING, STRATIGRAPHY
AND HYDROCARBON DISTRIBUTION
Geological Setting and Stratigraphy
The Siberian Platform has largely maintained its
integrity since it consolidated from a series of Archaean
 Palaeoenvironment

Uplifted land areas (eroding or no net deposition)

Coastal strip of variable salinity depositing

NA O RM clastics and carbonates
LE F
AR - AT
ANAB E PL
T High-salinity lagoon depositing limestones and
A R B O NA dolomites and thick evaporite beds
C

High-salinity lagoon depositing limestones and

dolomites but with “impersistent evaporite beds”
MK 2

(K
D
O

Y uo
Variable-salinity lagoon depositing limestones

U n
a mM O
Noril’sk MK 2 and dolomites

M
sk - O
Su LE

K3

1
it e N EK Direction of major sediment transport

K
de

M
M
po BASI
3 si t N Yakutsk
K ion Direction of minor sediment transport

1
K1
M ) Ust’-Maya

MK
PK
1 To the north of the barrier reef was a marine
epicontinental basin, predominantly normal salinity,
M A C A R B O N AT E depositing limestone, dolomite & organic-enriched micrite
I R K U T S K - O L EK P L AT F O R M
Total organic carbon (TOC)

2-3%

3-5%
Liu, Blackbourn et al.

5-7%

>7%
Krasnoyarsk

No data available

Irkutsk K1 Catagenetic grade (see text)

0 100 200 300 400 500
M

Kilometres
Palaeogeographic boundary (inferred)

Fig. 2. Generalised Cambrian palaeogeography of the East Siberian Basin, showing a WNW-ESE trending barrier reef separating platformal deposits with evaporites in
5

the south from deeper-marine environments in the north. Adapted from Semenova, 1975, and Starosel’tsev et al., 2013.
6 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin

a) Physical and chemical characteristics of natural bitumen and petroleum

(from Khalimov et al., 1983).

Oil Asphaltics Viscosity Density

Class
(percent) (percent) (cP) (specific gravity)

High viscosity oil

75 <25 50-2,000 0.935-0.965
[Heavy oil]
Maltha
40-75 25-60 2,000-20,000 0.965-1.030
[Extra heavy oil]
Asphalt
25-40 60-75 20,000-1,000,000 1.030-1.100
[Natural bitumen]

Asphaltite <25 >75 >1,000,000 1.050-1.200

Kerite 1
3-5 >90 ( 2) 1.070-1.350
[Pyrobitumen]
Anthraxolite
( 3) 100 ( 4) 1.300-2.000
[Pyrobitumen]
Ozocerite ( 5) ( 6)
<50 0.850-0.970
[Mineral wax]

1 Rarely as high as 10 4
Hard, insoluble in chloroform
2 5
Hard, partly soluble in chloroform If pure, 100 percent; if impure, 50 percent
3 6
Not available Semi-hard paraffinic structure

Highly viscous oil API (o)

20
Heavy
Oil
15
Maltha

10

Asphalt Asphaltite
5

Extra-heavy oil Natural bitumen

-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

<10,000 >10,000
Viscosity (cP)

b) Classification of natural bitumen and heavy oil. API gravity, in degrees;

viscosity, in centipoises (cP) (based on data compiled in Khalimov et al.,
1983; Meyer & Freeman, 2006; Meyeret al., 2007).

Fig. 3. Summary of various classification systems of heavy oils, bitumens and related substances used in Russia
and internationally.

and younger blocks during the Palaeoproterozoic
at around 2.0-1.8 Ga (Pisarevsky et al., 2021). The
basement of the Platform is mostly composed of
Archaean rocks which were partially remobilised
during the Early Proterozoic. The three main areas of
Archaean basement outcropping in Eastern Siberia
are the Aldan, Anabar and Olenek Arches, sometimes
termed uplifts or shields (Fig. 1). A number of smaller-
scale basement uplifts are present along the southern
and southwestern margins of the Siberian Platform. The
rest of the platform is covered by Riphean, Vendian
and Phanerozoic sedimentary successions.
The terms “Riphean” and “Vendian” are still widely
used within Russia both as Proterozoic stage names
and as rock units (Rundqvist and Mitrofanov, 1993)
and, owing to the difficulty in assigning to them precise
ages, it is convenient to retain them here. The Riphean
is associated with deposits which overlie Archaean
basement and which pre-date the Baikalian orogeny,
and is dated between about 1650 and 650 Ma; it is
sometimes subdivided into Lower, Middle and Upper
rock units with boundaries dating around 1350 and 1050
Ma, respectively (Fig. 5). Chronostratigraphically, the
Vendian comprises the interval between the Baikalian
orogeny and the base-Cambrian, although the rock
succession classed by many authors as Vendian
includes strata of Early Cambrian age. Fig. 6 is a
summary chronostratigraphic chart of the main regions
within the East Siberian Basin, covering the period
since the latest Riphean; and Fig. 7 provides three
illustrative cross-sections through the region (profile
locations in Fig. 1), adapted from previously published
sections.Section I-I’ passes through the Baikit and
Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises, illustrating the Cambrian
cover, including the regional evaporite seal, which
blankets Riphean deposits folded and eroded during
the Baikalian orogeny. Section II-II’, running from the
Anabar Arch in the north to the Angara-Lena Step in
the south, passes through the extensive and long-lived
Tunguska Basin and the more restricted Sayan-Angara
Basin, separated by the Irkineeva-Chadobets Uplift, an
inverted Riphean basin. Section III-III’ illustrates the
 Liu, Blackbourn et al. 7

Olenek
5850 km
2

69500 km2 Chekurovka & Bulkur

Bitumen distribution
86400 km 2
1450 km
2 Areas of fields hosting concentrated
East Anabar bitumen accumulations
114500 km
2

2400 km2 Kelimyar J2 Area containing numerous

31150 km
2 bituminous accumulations
Rassokha C2
Estimated extent of
600 km
2
bituminous accumulaton
17500 km2 V2 Central Olenek
V2 V2 Age of host lithology
R1 C1 1750 km2
R1-C1 R - Riphean
Medvezh’ye V - Vendian
V2 Kuoyka & Sololisk
225 km2 R-P
R-P C - Cambrian
J1-C2
C1 1750 km2 J - Jurassic
26800 km
2
C1-3 R1
C3 C1 C1 C2 Amga
V2
C1 C2 See Table 2 for other ages
C3 C2 Sina
Muna 11500 km2
C1
Noril’sk J1-C2 28300 km
2 3200 km2
C2 C2 C2
C3 C2 7700 km
2
Bitumen type and reservoir porosity types
Turukhan C3 C3 C3 C3 C2
Anabar C3
C3 C3
16400 km2 337600 km2 Tuolba
C2-3 ‘Maltha’
TU 1600, 1250, 800 km
2

Yakutsk Ust’-Maya Intergranular pore space

(K NG 9200 km2
UR US
EI Veins & vugs
KA KA Siligir-Markha

SY BAS 9100 km2

da
‘Asphalt & Asphaltites’
NC IN

an
82500 km2

Kh
LI

R.
Sigovo-Podkammenoi
NE Ust-Maya / Aldan-Maya Intergranular pore space
400 km2 ) Ilygir & Chenkiyam
Aldan Arch
20900 km
2

124300 km2 Veins & vugs

300 & 250 km
2

Chunya
8100 km2
16800 km Dikimde
2

Estimated bitumen resources (million tonnes)

<10
Lower Chunya
1200 km2
10 - 50

100 - 500

>1000

Southwest Angara-Lena
Bitumen present in
Krasnoyarsk 57300 km2
Vendian

Riphean
V2

Irkutsk
0 100 200 300 400 500 V2

Kilometres

Fig. 4. Map illustrating the names and locations of bitumen accumulations in the East Siberian Basin described in this paper, with the estimated area of each. See text for further explanation as to how accumulations are subdivided according to resource density. Ornaments and colours provide a summary of the age, nature and resource volumes of each
accumulation, but more detailed information is provided in the text and in Table 2.
8 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin

C Chadobets Uplift

Pre-Riphean basement uplift

Thickness (m)
IN

Age (Ma)

Lithology
RG

System
Turukhan Step

UDZHA
A

Stage

BASIN
Suite
MA Platform sequence
E

VERKHO
IV
SS
PA
YR
IM

Thickness (m)
Intracratonic rift sequence

YAN
TA

Lithology

PA
Suite

(bz)

260

S
ANABAR

SIVE
ARCH Passive margin rift sequence

YUDO
Noril’sk

MA
ANG
700

(md)

RG
150
E N

AR

I
N

MA
Isopachs for Riphean

SI

A -K
300

BA

-MA
sediments (km)

(tr)
2.0

OT
N

YA
Yakutsk

HA
Brus

UL
255
RI Ust’-Maya
FT

RK
(mr)
G

150
Riphean basin boundaries

TU
A UCHUR-MAYA

Terina
ZONE
B Kamo Arch

225
Areas where Riphean strata
BEREZOV
800 BASIN
are absent
NEPA-BOTUOBA
F

Shorikha
AN BA

Chuktukon
ANTECLISE

Upper Riphean
TE IKI

Thickness (m)
750
IN
CL T
D G

275
B AR

Lithology
IS

YE SIV
E

Group

PA
M

Suite
KATANGA

NI E
S

SE M

VE
SADDLE

SI
I R AR
A
EVETS

S
ID GIN
C

PA
NE B

GE
KI O T

M
IR ADRIF

TO
C H

(tk) Iremeken

-PA
Dolchik
110 >240
900

PR E
225
Burovaya

NA
Krasnoyarsk E
-L

700
A
AR
ANG
? D Katanga Saddle

Vingolda
Irkutsk
0 100 200 300 400 500

650
Kilometres

1000

Thickness (m)
Derevnya

Lithology
260

Suite
Semen
Map of the Siberian Platform showing the present distribution and thickness of Riphean deposits

1030
and the location of the representative stratigraphic sections

Rassolka

180
?
Sukhaya Tunguska

Ushikta
G Uchur - Maya Zone

>180
750
1100

Yukten

>388
F Berezov Basin

Kamo
RIPHEAN

Thickness (m)
>100
(cb)

Age (Ma)
Lithology
Ayan

System
140

Group

Stage
Suite
(kp)

155

Thickness (m)
Linok

Lithology
Middle Riphean

170

bz: Bezymyannaya

Suite
md: Medvedka

Kuyumba

Paiga

372
cb: Chadobets

555
1200

Ust’ - Kirbinsk

200 - 1500
700

Upper
Strelnye Gory

150

90 >200 >200
(dl)

(nr)

571 - 632
Torginsk
850

Ui
Mid.
Yurubchen

Upper Riphean
800

(kl) (el)
Anabar Arch

400
E

200 - 4000
Kandyksk
Lower
1300

Ognev

Thickness (m)

187-
900

260

199
(ak)
Zelendukon (vd) Madra

180

Lithology
Group
Ignikansk

Suite

200
160
-
186+
(ck)

Lakhanda
tr: Turukhansk

(km) (ml) (nl)

150

Neryuensk

200 - 300
mr: Miroedikha

(dk)

275
ck: Chekhurdakhsk 1000
ak: Alekseevsk
>250

1400
(av)

>150 80 150 95 95

Yusmastakh
(ts)

450 50 200
1500 440 420
(sg) (br)

-
Kerpyl
(mg)

450

-
1100

RIPHEAN
(tt)

-
Billyakh

Middle Riphean
tk: Tokur
(ch)
Lower Riphean

kp: Kopcher

Svetlinsk

180 - 600
dl: Dolgokta

(er)
vd: Vedreshev 1200

Aimchan
1500

Kotuikan

400

60 - 1100
Kalinida

Talynsk
kl:
av: Ayava 1300
br: Bereya
Lithology

(ui)

70
sg: Segochamba
ch: Chevar
Dolomite Limestone nr: Neryunda
1600 el: Elokhta 1400

Mukun

Dimsk
dk: Dzhelindukon

800
Clayey dolomite Clayey limestone

Lower Riphean
er: Eremina

nl: Nel’kansk

Uchur
Sandy dolomite Mudstone 1500
ml: Mil’konsk
km: Kumakhinsk

Trekhgornaya
ts: Tsipandinsk
AR - PR1

Stromatolitic dolomite Siltstone

mg: Malginsk
1700 tt: Tottinsk
Cherty dolomite ui: Ust’ - Ilya
Sandstone 1600

Detrital dolomite Basement

AR - PR1
Marlstone Source rock 1700

Fig. 5. Representative Riphean sections across the East Siberian Basin. Adapted from Pavlov et al., 2002, Frolov et al., 2011 and Votyakov, 2015. Inset map adapted from Ulmishek, 2001 and Howard et al., 2012.The precise ages of many of the rock units illustrated remains under debate, and the stratigraphic nomenclature also varies between authors.
 Liu, Blackbourn et al. 9

CHRONO-
ANABAR / OLENEK TUNGUSKA BAIKIT SAYAN - ANGARA NEPA - BOTUOBA PRE-PATOM ALDAN VILYUI
STRATI
GRAPHY ARCH BASIN ANTECLISE BASIN ANTECLISE TROUGH ARCH BASIN

Ma QUAT
NEO- SW NE NW SE SW NE NW SE SW NE SW NE NW SE NW SE

CENOZOIC
GENE

PALEOGENE
v v
50

CRETACEOUS
100

MESOZOIC
150

JURASSIC
200

TRIASSIC
v v
v v
vvv vvv
250 v v v v v v v v v v v v
v v v v v v v v v v v
v

PERMIAN
?

?
300
CARBONIFEROUS
vv
?
v
v v
v v
350
v v v
PALAEOZOIC

v v v
DEVONIAN

v
? ? ?
400

v v v ?
SILUR-
IAN

?
450
ORDOVI-

?
CIAN

v v
v
CAMBRIAN

500
v v v v
v
v
v v v v v v v v v
v v
v v v v v v v
550 ? ?
v v
v v v v v v v v v v v v
vvv v v v v
v v v v v v v v v v v v v v
?
v v v v v
?
VENDIAN

v
vv v v
v v v v
600 ? v v
v v v v v
v

650 ? ?
NEOPROTEROZOIC

B A I K A L I A N O R O G E N Y
700
LATE RIPHEAN

750

NOT KNOWN

800

850

Key: Sandstone Mudstone,shale,clay Carbonate Dolomite Lime Mud Conglomerate

v v Volcanics v v
Evaporites Coal • Lignite Dolomitic Reefal build-ups

Fig. 6. Summary chronostratigraphic charts of the main regions within the East Siberian Basin covering the Vendian and younger deposits. Only the youngest Riphean deposits are included, where preserved beneath the Baikalian unconformity, and their depiction should be regarded as indicative only owing to uncertainties over their age.The ages of some
of the later Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits, often sparsely developed, are also in some cases uncertain.
10 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin

BAIKAL PRE-PATOM
-PATOM THRUST
BAIKIT ANTECLISE KATANGA SADDLE NEPA-BOTUOBA ANTECLISE TROUGH BELT
I I’
Upper Chona
W Upper
Tokhomsk-1 Preobrazhensk Talakansk E
1 Omorinsk-1 Taiginsk-1 Oskoba-1 Vanavara-1 139 126 137138 123 804 803 1 Evaporites
J
C3 Pz3 T1 C3
0 C2
C1 0 Carbonate rocks
1 1 Clastic rocks
C1 V-C1
2 2 Basement
V-C1 R
3 3 Intrusion of dolerite
4
200 kilometres
R 4

5 5
Km
6
Km

After Gabrielyants, 1991

ANABAR ARCH TUNGUSKA BASIN

IRKINEEVA - PRE-
(WESTERN FLANK) CHADOBETS SAYAN -
ANGARA - KOTUL OR CHUNYA BASIN SAYAN-ANGARA BASIN ANGARA-LENA STEP
II TURINSK BASIN (RIPHEAN) KATANGA SADDLE UPLIFT YENISEI II’
N Central
SYNCLINE
Bratsk-11 Atov-9
S
1 Chirindinsk-271 Kiramkinsk-1 Taimurinsk-272 Chunya-120 Oskoba-1 Agaleev-3 1
C-P T
0 C-P 0
R2 D
S S
1 R1 R3 1
? O O
2 2
C2-3Ev R3 C2-3Ev
3 C2Lit 3
C1An
4 C1An 4
C1Bl C1Bl
5 R2
5
C1Us R3 C1Us Triassic
6 Carboniferous-Permian
6
VSb+Tt R2
7 VKtg VOskVVn R3-V1 Devonian 7
R1 R1 Silurian
8 8
Km Ordovician
200 kilometres 9
Middle - Upper Cambrian (Evenki) Km
After Frolov et al., 2011 Middle Cambrian (Litvintsev)
Lower Cambrian (Angara)
Lower Cambrian (Bela + Bulai)
Lower Cambrian (Usola)
Upper Vendian (Soba + Tetere)
Upper Vendian (Katanga)
Upper Vendian (Oskoba)
KEMPENDYAI ALDAN Lower Vendian (Vanavara)
YGATTA SUNTAR BASIN BEREZOV ARCH Riphean-Vendian (=Lower Vanavara)
BASIN ARCH BASIN Upper Riphean, R3
III III’ Middle Riphean, R2

NW SE Lower Riphean, R1
Intrusion of dolerite
K1-2 P2
1 D1 J1 1
0 0 K1-2
ª J3
ª
3 J3
1 2 J2 1
J2
2 ª 1 O1 2
C2-P J1
3 V2 3 D3-C1 Lines I-I’ and II-II’ are at the same vertical and horizontal scales.
4 D3-C1 4 D1
S
S
5 5
O2-3 Line III-III’ has the same vertical scale as I-I’ and II-II’, but twice the
6
AR-PR1
6
O1 horizontal scale.
7 7 ª3
8 8 ª2
9 9 ª1
ª 1 V2
10 10
V1
11 11 R3
Km R3(?) Km AR-PR1
200 kilometres
After Frolov et al., 2015

Fig. 7. Illustrative cross sections through the sedimentary cover of the East Siberian Basin.The lines of section are shown on Fig. 1. Line I-I’ is a broadly east-west section across the Baikit and Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises; line II-II’ runs approximately north-south from the western flank of the Anabar Arch to the Angara-Lena Step in the south; and Line III-III’
runs across a series of sub-basins and arches lying towards the southwestern termination of the Vilyui Basin.
 Liu, Blackbourn et al.
structure of the southwestern section of the Devonian
Vilyui rift basin, where it is divided into several sub-
basins and intervening arches.
The following short description of the tectonic
and sedimentary history of the Siberian Platform is
not comprehensive, and covers only major events of
significance to the development of petroleum systems
responsible for generating the bitumen accumulations
in the region,
According to most modern researchers, during
much of the Proterozoic the Siberian block, the former
microcontinent which now forms the Siberian Platform
and which in this context is often referred to simply
as Siberia, formed a promontory of the supercontinent
of Rodinia, from which it broke off during the
Neoproterozoic (Fig. 8). Owing to a scarcity of reliable
and well-dated palaeomagnetic data, however, there
is uncertainty as to where on the Rodinian margin
Siberia was located. Goodge et al. (2008), for example,
placed it close to the portion of the margin which
would become the South China block. Scotese (2009)
preferred a position close to Baltica; while Pisarevsky
et al. (2008) suggested that Siberia had similarities with
Laurentia which however were not sufficient for the
blocks to be closely connected. More recently, Ernst
et al. (2016), by comparing isotopic ages of large
igneous events, concluded that southern Siberia and
northern Laurentia were “probably” near neighbours
between 1870 and 720 Ma. Pisarevsky et al. (2021)
also concluded that Siberia was close to Laurentia
during much of the Proterozoic, but that the Yangtze
block (the northern portion of the South China block)
lay between them. Figs 8A & B illustrate possible
locations of Siberia in relation to the other blocks which
comprised Rodinia during the Late Mesoproterozoic
and mid-Neoproterozoic (after Evans, 2021).
The Proterozoic evolution of the Siberian block
itself also remains a topic of debate. Most current
authors, including those cited above together with Li et
al. (2008) and Metelkin et al. (2011), consider that the
Siberian Platform was largely surrounded by passive
margins through most of the Neoproterozoic, except
in the south where it was at first attached to Rodinia
(all orientations refer to the present-day continental
configuration). Gladkochub et al. (2006) proposed
that the onset of passive-margin sedimentation in the
SW corresponded to the break-up of Rodinia and the
opening of the Palaeo-Asiatic Ocean here. However
by the late Neoproterozoic, the western and southern
margins of the block had become active, with obduction
of island arcs and ophiolites onto the Platform in
these areas by 650 Ma, prior to the deposition of the
Vendian succession (Vernikovsky et al., 2004). These
events, though not synchronous, are associated with
episodes of folding and uplift collectively referred
11
to as the Baikalian orogeny (Shatsky, 1945). Some
authors conflate the Baikalian orogeny with the
Timanide orogeny, but we prefer to restrict the latter
to East Baltica where it was defined (Roberts and
Olovyanishnikov, 2004). The pre-Baikalian cover
of the Platform comprises the Riphean sedimentary
succession (Fig. 6).
Periodic phases of extension across Rodinia during
deposition of the Riphean, including in parts of the
Siberian Platform, resulted in the formation of a
series of intracratonic rifts (Zonenshain et al., 1990),
including the Irkineeva-Chadobets rift, later inverted
as the uplift of the same name (Fig. 1 and Fig. 7,
Section II-II’). The Baikalian continental collisions
that occurred around the platform margins during
the Neoproterozoic were associated with significant
deformation of the interior of the Platform, including
rift inversion and block uplift. However, the limited
nature of the outcrops of rocks of these ages has
prevented full understanding of the tectonic events
involved, although it appears that the Riphean is
significantly more intensely folded and faulted than
the overlying Vendian and Palaeozoic (Frolov et al.,
2011; Fig. 7). Baikalian crustal compression was
followed by deposition of the Vendian and Cambrian
during a period of relative tectonic quiescence. The
onset of lithospheric cooling during this period led
to thermal subsidence during which siliciclastic and
carbonate sediments were deposited over much of the
Platform, and were in general thicker in the extensive
areas between the various basement highs (Fig. 7,
Section I-I’).
The modern structural framework of the Siberian
Platform was largely established during the Vendian.
The collision of the Barguzin microcontinent with
Siberia during the Early to mid-Palaeozoic, which
created the Pre-Patom foldbelt in the SE (Figs 1 and
8C), resulted in the gentle folding of the Cambrian to
Silurian sedimentary succession across the Platform.
A largely continuous sedimentary succession was
deposited in the Tunguska Basin from the Middle
Vendian to the Early Carboniferous (Tournaisian)
and reaches a thickness of 8 km (Fig. 7, Section II-
II’). Rates of subsidence here were highest during
the Vendian and Cambrian. Although some previous
authors attributed this to post-rift subsidence, no
Vendian rift margins capable of explaining the rate
of subsidence have yet been identified. The Riphean
structures had already been deformed by this time, and
it is not thought that they could have greatly influenced
the Palaeozoic depositional history. Nikishin et al.
(2010) proposed that, during the Vendian and Early
Palaeozoic, Baikalian crustal compression in the region
of the basin was followed by a period of relaxation,
during which a dense, lower slab of lithosphere broke
off. This led to a period of rapid pre-Vendian isostatic
12 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
uplift and the erosion of the deformed Riphean interval.
This was followed by the onset of gradual cooling of
the lithosphere, leading to thermal subsidence and the
creation of a deep sedimentary basin. The duration
of cooling, from the mid-Vendian to the Tournaisian,
was about 250 million years, which these authors
regarded as typical for a thermally-subsiding basin.
They considered that this model is important in terms
of the evolution of petroleum systems within the
Tunguska Basin, since it implies that the sedimentary
cover underwent a significant heating event during
the Vendian-Cambrian, after which the heat flow
progressively decreased until the Triassic.
Various breaks in sedimentation across the
Siberian Platform are observed, including during the
pre-Llanvirnian (mid-Ordovician), at the Silurian-
Devonian boundary, and in the pre-Middle Devonian,
although these are not developed in all areas (Fig. 6).
Their occurrence has generally been associated with
collisional phases along the margins of the block
which are not yet fully understood: the so-called
“Early Caledonian”, “Late Caledonian” and “Final
Caledonian” events respectively (Metelkin et al.,
2011). Zorin et al. (2008) suggested on the basis of
zircon dating that the major folding in the south,
affecting the Pre-Patom thrust belt, did not take place
until the Silurian. Fig. 8D illustrates the tectonic
configuration of the Siberian block during the Early
Devonian (after Vernikovsky et al., 2018).
During the Middle Devonian to Tournaisian, the
Siberian Platform experienced rifting accompanied
by the intrusion of massive dyke swarms, together
with basaltic and kimberlite magmatism (Kravchinsky
et al., 2002). These events were concentrated in the
eastern part of the Platform, where the NE-trending
Vilyui rift system formed, later developing into the
wider Vilyui Basin (Fig. 1). Nikishin and Yakubchuk
(2002) proposed that a major mantle plume underlay
the eastern part of the Platform at this time. This event
may also be associated with a Late Devonian phase of
uplift and minor erosion of the Anabar Arch (Ershova
et al., 2020). The Middle to Late Devonian rifting
occurred behind a continental-margin volcanic belt
which extended along the southeastern margin of the
Siberian continental block (Polyansky et al., 2017).
The development of the Siberian Platform between
the Visean and the end of the Permian was characterised
by orogenesis along its western, northern and southern
margins, while a passive margin, the Verkhoyan
margin, remained to the east and NE (Fig. 8E). The
following summary is taken largely from Cocks and
Torsvik (2007) and Vernikovsky et al. (2018). Major
collisions took place between the European (Baltica),
Kazakh and Siberian continental blocks during the
Carboniferous and Permian, with significant elements
of strike-slip movement. The Siberian block underwent
substantial clockwise rotation during this period, and
the Kara terrane probably accreted onto the northern
margin of the block at this time. As a result, a large
part of Western Siberia together with Taimyr in the
north and Transbaikalia in the SE (Fig. 1) was uplifted,
forming areas of massive sediment supply; eroded
detrital material infilled extensive foreland basins to
the south of Taimyr and in the Tunguska area. Major
compression in Transbaikalia led to intra-platformal
deformation along the southern part of the Siberian
Platform, including parts of the Nepa-Botuoba
Anteclise, and smaller-scale folding and thrusting are
thought to have occurred in many parts of the platform
during the Carboniferous and Permian. Palaeozoic
deformation on the Platform is characterised by broad
folding and vertical movements of large basement
blocks. For example, the Katanga Saddle between the
Baikit and Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises underwent uplift
and reactivation during the Silurian, and subsequent
subsidence during the Middle Carboniferous –
Triassic. Smaller uplifts have also undergone phases of
Palaeozoic deformation. For example, the Chadobets
and Irkineeva uplifts in the Baikit region were active
during the Early Palaeozoic.
Basaltic “trap” magmatism was widespread
over the Siberian Platform from the Permo-Triassic
boundary and during the Early Triassic, with the
formation of volcanic successions up to 3 km thick,
and the intrusion of numerous dykes. The main phase
of volcanism is thought to have lasted no more than 1
million years. The main centre of volcanism lay within
the Tunguska Basin, coinciding approximately with the
Palaeozoic depocentre. The Permo-Triassic volcanism
is widely interpreted as having been associated with a
mantle plume (Allen et al., 2006), which would have
had major significance in terms of the thermal history
of the area.
The Jurassic and the Neocomian were periods of
compression across the Siberian Platform and the major
positive structures remained uplifted. The end of this
period was characterised by the culmination of a major
collisional event along the Verkhoyan margin in the
NE (Fig. 8F) with the formation of the Pre-Verkhoyan
marginal trough, and the same period coincided with
closure in this area of the Mongol-Okhotsk ocean.
Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments were deposited
within basinal areas and consist of siliciclastics,
sometimes coal-bearing, which are up to 350 m thick
(Panov and Baraboshkin, 2015).
Although the Siberian Platform continued to
undergo some tectonic activity during the Cenozoic, by
this time it was largely surrounded by other continental
blocks and the overall structure of the region was little
changed. Cenozoic deposits are thin or absent across
the region (Fradkina et al., 2005).
2018.
1050 Ma Late Mesoproterozoic A 700 Ma Mid-Neoproterozoic B

SChi
STar
Aus NTar NChi NChi
Ind Aus

Kal Laur Proto-Rodinia Sib

Sib Laur
Ca Ind RP
Ya
Amaz Cong Kal
Cong RP Amaz Bal
Bal
WAf

WAf

C D E F
PALAEO-
TIC MONGOL-OKHOTSK PACIFIC
SIA OCEAN ARCTIC OCEAN
40°N

N
O-A
L AE EAN ABO °N OCEAN

EA ON
PA 50

M
OC K-O

OC YAK
OI
Bar V
S VB
B 30°N VO
10°S
VB
T

AN
Sib Sib
YK

Am

CE
V Sib SIB
V 20°N

STB

SO
Kar
z

AL
NChi

A
B Ka °N
50

UR
URALS CAB
N Bal

NG OC
30°S 10°N OCEA

AY EA
Kaz WSB

UC N
HA
Tar 20°N

M
Kar 40°N
UB

Equator
Kar 40°S Bal TETHYS
Liu, Blackbourn et al.

Bal OCEAN
PC 30°N
500Ma Late Cambrian 400Ma Early Devonian 290Ma Early Permian 120Ma Early Cretaceous

Siberia block Spreading ridges Continental Blocks: Sedimentary Basins:

Amaz Amazonia PC Precaspian Basin

Other continental blocks Subduction zones Amu Amuria VB Vilyui Basin
Aus Australia (with Mawsonland) WSB West Siberia Basin
Marine shelf and other environments B Blocks accreted to Siberia YKT Yenisei-Khatanga Trough
between major conjoined continental Other structural lineaments during “Baikalian” orogeny
blocks Bal Baltica Orogenic Belts:
Bar Barguzin
Boundaries of continental Ca Cathaysia ABO Altai-Baikal orogen
V Verkhoyan passive margin
blocks Cong Congo CAB Central Asian belt
Ind India STB South Taimyr belt
Boundaries of selected K-O Kolyma-Omolon UB Urals belt
Contemporary orogens Kal Kalahari VO Verkhoyan orogen
sedimentary basins
Kar Kara
Kaz Kazakhstan
Ocean Laur Laurentia
NChi North China
NTar North Tarim
RP Rio Plata
S Sayan
Sib Siberia
STar South Tarim
WAf West Africa
Ya Yangtze

Late Mesoproterozoic and the Cretaceous. A and B adapted from Evans, 2021, and C-F from Vernikovsky et al.,
Fig. 8. Schematic diagrams illustrating the position and tectonic evolution of the Siberian Platform between the
13
14 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
ORIGIN OF CONVENTIONAL
HYDROCARBONS AND BITUMENS
Bitumen may be formed from crude oil by a number
of different processes including biodegradation, water
washing, thermal activity and de-asphalting (Liu et al.,
2019). Most of the bitumen accumulations in the East
Siberian Basin can be explained by the biodegradation
and oxidation of pre-existing oil accumulations, which
occurred during regional uplift and the unroofing of
reservoirs. The origin and distribution of bitumens
is therefore closely linked to that of conventional oil
accumulations, which depend in turn on the nature and
occurrence of source rocks.
Riphean source rocks and source rock kitchens
Most researchers regard organic-rich intervals in
the Riphean succession as a major, and probably the
main, source of the hydrocarbons in the East Siberian
Basin, especially ocean-margin deposits associated
with the contemporary passive margins. Frolov et
al. (2011) stated that the organic matter in Riphean,
Vendian and Early to Middle Palaeozoic source rocks
is dominated by lipid-rich materials derived from
prokaryotes (cyanobacteria) and eukaryotes including
green and red algae. Benthic stromatolite-forming
bacteria, which appeared in the Early Riphean, together
with the Ediacaran fauna and the oldest metazoan
invertebrates, may also have contributed to the organic
content. Dakhnova et al. (2014) also reviewed the
geochemical characteristics of Riphean, Vendian and
Cambrian potential source rocks of the East Siberian
Basin, and these authors agree that, despite their age,
these deposits contained source material of sufficient
quality and volume to have generated the hydrocarbons
observed in Eastern Siberia.
A number of Riphean source kitchens in the East
Siberian Basin have been proposed. These in general
refer to extensive but poorly-defined basinal areas
bordering the Siberian Platform in which potential
marine source rocks are known or inferred to have
been present, although detailed stratigraphies or
geochemical data are often absent owing to poor
exposure and the remoteness of many of the areas.
Kontorovich et al. (1999) defined and discussed the
Yenisei-Baikit, Baikal-Patom, Vilyui, Tunguska and
Yenisei-Khatanga kitchens which are located within
these respective basinal areas (Fig. 1). Frolov et al.
(2011) added the Anabar and Turukhansk kitchens. In
this paper, we add the Pre-Verkhoyan kitchen which
is thought to be chiefly responsible for the oils which
have degraded into the bitumen accumulations present
over the Olenek Arch. General characteristics of the
potential source-rock horizons within each of these
kitchens, as described by these authors, are summarised
in Table 1. Those kitchens thought to have been of
greatest significance to the oils responsible for the
larger-scale bitumen accumulations are discussed
below.
Anabar kitchen
Frolov et al. (2011) stated that organic-rich intervals in
the Lower Riphean Ust’-Ilya Suite* (Fig. 5), which is
40-70 m thick and occurs over the western and northern
flanks of the Anabar Arch (Fig. 1), have TOC values
averaging 0.45-0.65% and locally reaching 6-8%.
Geochemical modelling indicates that they may have
passed through the oil and gas windows between the
Late Proterozoic and Early Palaeozoic.
Turukhansk kitchen
Frolov et al. (2011) analysed Riphean potential
source-rock intervals in outcrops along the Lower
Tunguska River in the area of the Turukhansk Step
in the far west of the Tunguska Basin (Fig. 1). These
authors found that the highest hydrocarbon generating
potential occurs in dark mudstones of the Middle
Riphean Strelnye Gory Suite (Fig. 5), in intervals up
to 30 m thick. TOC values were reported to vary from
0.2-4.2% and the samples were post-mature. Thinly
bedded Upper Riphean mudstones and argillaceous
carbonates here, up to several metres thick, have TOC
contents of up to 1.2%.
Baikal-Patom kitchen
Kontorovich et al. (1999) considered that the
main source rocks in the Baikal-Patom kitchen,
corresponding broadly to the area around Lake Baikal
and the Pre-Patom belt (Fig. 1), are of Middle to
Late Riphean age. They stated that Upper Riphean
source rocks entered both the oil and the gas windows
during the Vendian and Cambrian, by which time
the sedimentary cover overlying the Nepa-Botuoba
Anteclise in the SE of the East Siberian Basin (Fig. 1)
had begun to form, and hydrocarbons would have been
able to migrate up-dip to charge reservoirs there by
long-distance lateral migration. Belonin and Samsonov
(2004) proposed that oil migration from the Baikal-
Patom kitchen into reservoirs on the Nepa-Botuoba
Anteclise began at around the Middle/Late Cambrian
boundary. Hydrocarbons generated within the Lower
Vendian over the Anteclise itself may also have risen,
possibly along fractured top-Riphean weathered zones
* Russian stratigraphy does not have a formal terminology
corresponding to the international Group – Formation
- Member (etc.) hierarchy and the more general term
“svita” [Suite] is used. Pavlinov et al. (1991, p. 217) defined
a “svita” as a “complex of rocks with distinct boundaries
occupying a defined position within the local stratigraphic
scale”. Although sometimes translated as ‘Formation’,
this is not strictly correct and we prefer to retain the
term ‘Suite’.
 Liu, Blackbourn et al. 15

Table 1. Summary characteristics of the main potential source-rock kitchens identified on and around the
Siberian Platform. R – Riphean,V – Vendian, C - Cambrian. PZ – Palaeozoic, O – Ordovician, S – Silurian,
Carb – Carboniferous, P – Permian,T – Triassic, J – Jurassic.

Age(s) of Thickness
Major Source- Time of Main
Name of Potential Time of Main Phase of Oil of
Rocks Named Phase of Gas
Kitchen Source Generation Sedimentary
in Text Generation
Rocks Succession
R2-3 and C-O over Baikit
Yenisei- R2-3, 11,000-
R1-3 Madra Suite Anteclise
Baikit P-T 11,500 m
R2-3 within Yenisei Ridge
C3-O for R2-3
R2-3 R3 for R2 source rocks
Baikal- source rocks 8,500-4000
Patom ?Mesozoic for m
?V V-C3 for R3 source rocks
V source rocks
R(?), C, Kuonamsk Suite PZ3 for C source rocks Up to 10,000
Vilyui Mesozoic
PZ3 Inikansk Suite J-K for Carb-P source rocks m
Tunguska V, C1-2 ?Ust’-Ilya Suite S-P T 3000-4000 m
Yenisei-
C1-2, PZ3, J Cenozoic Cenozoic 3000-4000 m
Khatanga
Anabar
R1 Ust’-Ilya Suite V-PZ1 PZ1 4500-6000 m
Strelnye Gory
Turukhansk R2 Suite V-PZ1 PZ1 – Mesozoic 4500-6000 m
Miroedikha Suite
Pre-
R, Pre-C for R Up to 10,000
Verkhoyan No data
P P – Early Cret for P m
Pre-Sayan No data; possibly similar to Baikal-Patom (above)

or steeply-dipping faults, into the overlying Upper
Vendian and Lower Cambrian. Biomarker evidence
published by Kashirtsev et al. (1999) is consistent with
all of the Riphean to Early Cambrian oils of the Nepa-
Botuoba Anteclise having been sourced from organic-
rich Riphean and Vendian carbonates and calcareous
mudstones deposited on the passive margin of the
Siberian Platform. Drobot et al. (2004) proposed that
the same kitchen has been the source of gas in fields
located in the Angara-Lena Step including the giant
Kovykta field NW of Lake Baikal (Fig. 1).
Detailed analysis of biomarkers in oils from the
Nepa-Botuoba Anteclise and the Katanga Saddle
on its western flank (Fig. 1) by Kelly et al. (2011)
showed that they display a close similarity to those
in oils sourced from the Huqf Supergroup of Oman.
These authors concluded that the source rocks of the
Nepa-Botuoba oils must therefore be of the same age,
i.e. Ediacaran, which they equate with the whole of
the Vendian to Lower Cambrian. They noted, however,
that other characteristics of the Nepa-Botuoba oils
indicate that their source rocks were deposited under
open-marine conditions, unlike the source rocks in the
Huqf Supergroup.
Belonin and Samsonov (2004) noted the high
bitumen content of many of the gas reservoirs both
within the Angara-Lena Step and the Nepa-Botuoba
Anteclise. They considered that many of these
reservoirs were previously occupied by oil, which
was displaced by gas once Baikal-Patom source rocks
(and they think also source rocks within the Pre-Sayan
Trough) began to generate gas, perhaps during the
Mesozoic.
Tunguska Basin kitchen
The Riphean succession within the Tunguska Basin,
or Kureika Syncline (Fig. 1), is overlain by a thick
Vendian to Palaeozoic cover. The succession is thought
to be comparable to that exposed on the western flank
of the Anabar Arch, and the chief source rock may
therefore be analogous to the Ust’-Ilya Suite there.
Basin modelling reported by Frolov et al. (2011) in
the area of the Kiramkinsk-1 well within the Tunguska
Basin (Fig. 7, Section II-II’) indicates that Lower
Riphean source rocks, buried here to a depth of 7000
m, would have entered the oil window at around the
beginning of the Late Cambrian and passed the gas
window in the Early Triassic. The source rocks will
now virtually have exhausted their hydrocarbon-
generating capacity. Any oil trapped close to the site of
generation is likely to have been thermally degraded;
but owing to the presence of the thick, laterally
extensive basal-Cambrian evaporite seal, some of the
oil could have migrated laterally to shallower depths
around the margins of the basin, where it may have
been preserved.
Pre-Verkhoyan kitchen
This kitchen corresponds to the Riphean to Permian
deposits of the Pre-Verkhoyan passive margin which
were deposited on the NE of the Siberian Platform
before continental collision here (Fig. 8). It is described
16 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
in greater detail below in relation to the Olenek bitumen
accumulation (location in Fig. 4).
Post-Riphean source rocks
A number of potential post-Riphean oil-prone source
rocks have been identified within the East Siberian
Basin, although none of them is thought to have been
as prolific as those in the Riphean. The Kuonamsk Suite
consists of mixed but largely fine-grained carbonates
deposited from the end of the Early Cambrian to the
beginning of the Middle Cambrian on a deep shelf to
the north of the barrier reef shown on Fig. 2, which
accumulated large volumes of oil-prone organic
matter (Kontorovich et al., 1999). However, although
these deposits occur extensively around the Aldan
and Anabar Arches, they have never reached the oil
window in these locations. They may however have
been buried sufficiently deeply in the Vilyui Basin
where they lie at depths of 7000-10,000 m and are
therefore in the main gas window (Kontorovich et
al., 1999).
Starosel’tsev et al. (2013) mapped the source-rock
properties of the Kuonamsk Suite across the area and
quoted TOC values of up to 24.2% with an average
of 6.4%. However they indicated that the rocks are
sub-mature over most of their area of distribution,
with maturities of less than about MK3 according to
the Russian classification*. Maturity levels of MK3
were, however, measured in the Suite at locations in the
SW of the Vilyui Basin (Fig. 2), and higher maturities
would presumably have been attained in the deeper
basin to the NE. These authors estimated that in more
mature areas, the Kuonamsk Suite may accommodate
around 1.1 trillion m3 of shale gas and 3 billion tonnes
of shale oil.
Starosel’tsev et al. (2013) stated that Llandoverian
(Lower Silurian) graptolite shales in Eastern Siberia
display elevated contents of organic matter and
form potential source rocks, although there is little
information on their nature or distribution. Devonian
source rocks do not appear to be widespread, but
biomarker evidence published by Kashirtsev et al.
(1999) indicates that oils within the Permian reservoir
at the South Tigyansk field on the northern flank of the
Anabar Arch were generated by source rocks deposited
* Russian terminology divides thermal maturity into
levels from diagenesis (low), through protocatagenesis
(PK), mesocatagenesis (MK) to apocatagenesis (AK),
which is followed by metamorphism. Mesocatagenesis
is sub-divided into a range from MK1 to MK5. While oil
generation is considered to begin within MK1, the main
oil window falls within MK3. These catagenetic grades
cannot be directly equated with vitrinite reflectance
values, but mesocatagenesis has been roughly correlated
with Ro values of 0.5-2.0%, with MK3, for example,
between 0.85 and 1.15% (Naumov, 1989, pp. 176-7).
in a hypersaline environment, consistent with the
Devonian of the Lena-Anabar Basin to the north. Coals
and carbonaceous mudrocks of Late Carboniferous to
Permian age form widespread gas-prone source rocks
across the Siberian Platform, including the Vilyui and
Tunguska Basins. Gas generation in Upper Permian
source rocks in the Vilyui Basin was calculated by
Kontorovich et al. (1999) to have begun during the
Cretaceous. In the Tunguska Basin, gas generation did
not begin until the Triassic and resulted from crustal
heating associated with basaltic magmatism. These
deposits are not regarded as oil-prone.
Kashirtsev et al. (1999) interpreted biomarker
evidence from oils within Upper Permian and
Mesozoic reservoirs in the Vilyui Basin to indicate
derivation from terrigenous, possibly coal-bearing,
fluvial, lacustrine and swamp deposits of Permian age.
Fine-grained Jurassic sedimentary rocks only contain
significant contents of organic matter, both oil- and
gas-prone, around the eastern margins of the Siberian
Platform. These are thought to have reached thermal
maturity during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic and
may have generated hydrocarbons. However, it is not
clear whether any viable structures were present which
could have served as traps.
Reservoir rocks
The most important reservoir intervals for both
conventional hydrocarbons and bitumen across
the Siberian Platform are Vendian to Cambrian
sandstones and carbonates. The upper part of the
Vendian succession, which includes reservoir rocks
of Early Cambrian age, has moderate to good
reservoir properties with porosities of 5-25% and
permeabilities of up to 4 D. Reservoirs of various
other ages, mostly Palaeozoic, play a subordinate
role; the main reservoir at the giant Olenek bitumen
field is Permian (see below). Reservoirs for individual
bitumen accumulations are described in greater detail
in the relevant sections below.
Traps and seals
During the Early Cambrian, a barrier reef extended
across the East Siberian Basin from SE to NW (Fig. 2).
Thick evaporites were deposited in lagoonal conditions
to the SW of this reef and at the present day form a
regional-scale seal for hydrocarbons in underlying
reservoirs. This seal accounts for the overwhelming
majority of conventional hydrocarbon accumulations
across the East Siberian Basin wherever it is developed.
However in addition, various local seals both above
and below the Cambrian evaporites cap individual
accumulations.
Stratigraphic and anticlinal traps in the north of
the East Siberian Basin, formed as described in the
brief tectonic history above, were largely in-place by
 Liu, Blackbourn et al.
the Late Palaeozoic, when substantial volumes of oil
began to migrate into the region. Generation of this oil
was associated with the development of foreland basins
in front of the rising Taimyr fold belt in the north and
later the Verkhoyan belt in the NE (Fig. 1). This was
accompanied by the burial and thermal maturation of
older, including Riphean, organic-rich successions
at the base of the basinal successions. This process
is described in greater detail in the discussion of the
Olenek bitumen accumulation below.
The Lower Cambrian barrier reef therefore
effectively divides the East Siberian Basin into two
parts, with accumulations of conventional oil and gas
dominant to the south and of bitumen to the north. The
Lower Cambrian evaporites in the southern part of the
basin have a typical gross thickness of 1000-2000 m
(Fig. 6; Fig. 7, Section I-I’) and serve as an excellent
seal for underlying Lower Cambrian, Riphean and
Vendian reservoirs. In addition, shales may locally
form a cap rock instead of the evaporites in this area.
Everett (2012) noted that the evaporite seal resulted in
the presence of highly saline formation fluids within the
underlying reservoir rocks, with salinities 10-20 times
greater than that of modern seawater. These saline
fluids either inhibited or entirely destroyed microbial
life within the reservoirs, limiting biodegradation
and enhancing the preservation potential of any oils
present. Furthermore, owing to the relative stability
of the Siberian Platform, the reservoir intervals have
neither been deeply buried nor significantly uplifted.
The majority of conventional oil and gas fields in
the East Siberian Basin are located in the Baikit and
Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises (Fig. 1), with hydrocarbons
in Vendian (including Lower Cambrian) sandstone
and carbonate reservoirs, and in weathered carbonates
in the immediately underlying Riphean. The top-seal
for these fields comprises thick (Vendian to) Lower
Cambrian evaporites.
In contrast, in the northern part of the East Siberian
Basin where the Lower Cambrian evaporitic seal
is not present, the majority of hydrocarbons at the
present day take the form of bitumens which were
generated as pre-existing oil-bearing reservoirs were
uplifted and degraded. Lighter hydrocarbon fractions
evaporated, resulting in the relative concentration
of residual asphaltic and tar components; both
inorganic and biogenic degradation of light oils also
occurred, resulting in heavy oil and bitumen formation
(Kashirtsev et al., 2010). In the northern part of the
basin, bitumen accumulations are most common over
the Olenek, Anabar and Aldan Arches (Fig. 1), and
are hosted by reservoir rocks which include Vendian
vuggy dolomites, Cambrian limestones and Permian
sandstones. These accumulations are described in
further detail below.
17
DESCRIPTIONS OF INDIVIDUAL
BITUMEN ACCUMULATIONS
Bitumen accumulations in the East Siberian Basin
are concentrated in three main areas – the Olenek,
Anabar and Aldan Arches – with a few, generally
smaller, accumulations located elsewhere (Fig. 4).
Named areas of bitumen occurrence are often found
to contain several distinct accumulations, which may
or may not be connected, and in such cases the term
“field” is used in this paper, with “accumulation” used
where a bitumen occurrence appears likely to comprise
a single contiguous area of bitumen development.
In practice, the two cannot always be distinguished
unambiguously, and “field” is used simply as a more
general term (i.e. a named “field” may or may not
represent a single accumulation). A brief description
is provided below of the named bitumen occurrences
in each of these three areas.
The Olenek Arch
Olenek field
The Olenek field, on the northern flank of the Olenek
Arch (location in Fig. 4) and separate from the Central
Olenek field, is the only bitumen accumulation in the
East Siberian Basin which appears to have undergone
significant appraisal. Bitumen was discovered here in
1939 in Permian sandstone reservoir rocks which are
exposed in surface outcrops around the confluence
of the Olenek and Bur rivers (Polyakov et al., 2011).
An exploration programme between 1948 and 1953
drilled eight percussion wells and one rotary well along
an approximately north-south profile extending for
around 50 km northward from the mouth of the River
Bur, the northernmost and deepest well reaching TD
at 1050 m (Kashirtsev and Hein, 2012). A further 20
wells were drilled in 1966-67 around the river mouth
(Ivanov, 1979).
The Permian reservoir interval crops out for about
120 km along the River Olenek and its tributaries
including the Rivers Bur and the Khorbosuonka.
Bitumen-bearing strata extend down-dip towards
the Lena-Anabar Trough for over 50 km and rest on
massive Upper Cambrian dolomites of the Laparsk
Suite with sharp unconformity, beneath which a vuggy
interval is also in places saturated with bitumen (Fig.
9). The Permian succession is unconformably overlain
by Lower Triassic claystones which appear to have
acted as the regional top-seal to the precursor oil
accumulation.
The Permian succession is about 100-150 m thick
at outcrop, increasing to the north and NE to up to 340
m. Individual bitumen-bearing intervals form lenses
or ribbons which extend for tens of kilometres along
strike, with widths varying from several km to around
12 km. Only the more permeable, sand-rich, beds are
18 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
bituminous. Asphaltite near the surface passes into
asphalt with increasing burial depths.
Geochemical analyses reported by Polyakov et al.
(2011) showed that Permian OM-rich claystones from
the Olenek area are sub-mature for oil generation,
indicating that they could not have been the source
for the Olenek oil. Given that no potential source
rocks either within the deeper section of the Olenek
Arch or in the immediately surrounding troughs are
considered to be sufficiently voluminous to generate
the observed hydrocarbon volumes, the most probable
source kitchen for the Olenek oil is thought to have
been located to the east, with generation of oil
by organic-rich Riphean to Permian source rocks
deposited on the Verkhoyan passive margin prior to
continental collision here. The position of the former
passive margin, the Verkhoyan belt, is now marked by
the Verkhoyan mountain range (Fig. 1). This proposed
area of source-rock development is here designated
the Pre-Verkhoyan kitchen (Table 1). The Permian
succession is more than 2 km thick in the Kharaulakhsk
Ridge at the northern end of the Verkhoyan range,
around 160 km to the east of Olenek, with present-
day thermal maturities of MK5-AK1 (Polyakov et al.,
2011) corresponding to vitrinite reflectance values of
around 2.0% Ro. A little to the west of the Kharaulakhsk
Ridge, Permian sandstones on the Tuorasis Step within
the Bulkur anticline (Fig. 9) contain bitumens that
according to Kashirtsev et al. (2010) have a stable
carbon isotope composition similar to that in bitumen
from Olenek and a comparable biomarker profile. This
supports the view that the Olenek oils were derived
by long-distance migration from the east, from source
rocks deposited on the Pre-Verkhoyan passive margin,
before mid-Jurassic to Late Cretaceous closure of the
remnant ocean here.
On the basis of their analyses, Polyakov et al.
(2011) concluded that the generation of oil and its
migration towards adjacent uplifts may have taken
place as early as the Permian. Oil generation became
particularly significant around the Permian-Triassic
boundary and into the Early Triassic as a result of the
elevated heat flows associated with trap volcanism on
the Siberian Platform, and hydrocarbons continued to
be generated, although increasingly as gas, until the
beginning of the Cretaceous.
It is therefore proposed that the Olenek bitumens
originally formed as an oil accumulation between the
Late Permian and the beginning of the Cretaceous.
This timing is supported by Belonin and Samsonov
(2004), who added that hydrocarbons within Permian
reservoirs on the northern flank of the Olenek Arch,
and probably those in the Lower and Middle Cambrian,
are geochemically similar to the Late Palaeozoic and
Mesozoic oils within the Pre-Verkhoyan Trough and
the Vilyui Basin. This provides further support for
the origin of the Olenek bitumens by long-distance
migration from these areas.
Several authors, including Starosel’tsev et al.
(2013), have pointed out that oils in Permian
sandstones penetrated by deep wells in the Olenek
Uplift (e.g. Bursk-341 and Charchiksk-1) display
geochemical similarities to oils within Vendian to
Lower Cambrian reservoirs elsewhere on the Siberian
Platform. Therefore the possibility that an older source
rock has made some contribution cannot be excluded.
Degradation of the oil and the formation of bitumen
had probably begun by the Jurassic-Cretaceous
boundary, and was associated with uplift of the
Olenek Arch as a marginal high bordering the Pre-
Verkhoyan foreland basin to the east, associated with
the Pre-Verkhoyan source kitchen (Table 1). Bitumen
formation has continued to the present day owing to
the general uplift of the Siberian Platform since the
beginning of the Late Cretaceous.
Central Olenek
The Central Olenek bitumen field lies within the
crestal zone of the Olenek Arch (Figs 4 & 9). Here, the
Vendian to Cambrian Kessyusa Group unconformably
overlies vuggy dolomites of the Vendian Turkut Suite,
with a basal unit of sandstones and granule- to pebble-
grade conglomerates (Rogov et al., 2015). This basal
unit is variably saturated with bitumen which also acts
as a cement. The bituminous rocks are dark grey or dark
brown, with a characteristic smell of asphalt, and they
are distributed uniformly in bands or less commonly as
isolated spots. The source of the bitumen is presumably
the same as that at the Olenek field discussed above.
Bitumen concentrations in the Central Olenek field
vary up to a maximum of 2 wt% although values of 0.3-
1.5% are more common. The thickness of continuous
bitumen-bearing intervals varies from 0.3 m to 4.0 m.
The underlying vuggy Vendian dolomites also contain
bitumen (Kashirtsev et al., 2010).
Kuoyka and Sololisk
The Kuoyka and Sololisk bitumen accumulations lie
SW of Central Olenek (Fig. 4) and occur in Riphean
and Lower Cambrian sandstones and dolomites. The
total area of both accumulations combined is estimated
to be 1750 km2, with thicknesses of up to 15 m.
Bitumen saturation ranges from 1.2 to 10.0%.
Kelimyar
Kashirtsev et al. (2010) described the Kelimyar (or
Kulumas) bitumen accumulation which occurs on
the right bank of the River Olenek, 2 km below the
mouth of the River Kulumas (i.e. to the north of
the Olenek field: Fig. 4). Spots of viscous bitumen
are observed here in a layer of sideritic concretions
within argillaceous and silty facies of the Middle
 Liu, Blackbourn et al. 19

W E
Olenek Arch Bulkur Anticline
Calcite veins
Central Olenek with bitumen
accumulation Kelimyar accumulation
Olenek field Tuorasis accumulation

K
P
J
C
T

C
R V

Modified from Kashirtsev et al., 2010

Algal dolomites Argillaceous limestone Conglomerates & sandstones Faults

Limestones Mudstones & siltstones Bitumen accumulations

Fig. 9. West-east oriented cross section from the Olenek Arch to the Bulkur anticline to the west of the
Verkhoyan range, illustrating locations of known bitumen occurrences.The bitumen accumulations shown, also
depicted on Figure 4, do not occur along a single line of section, so the figure is partly schematic. It represents a
notional section approximately 150 km long, and the vertical profile illustrated corresponds to a section around
2 km thick.

Jurassic Kelimyar Suite (Fig. 9). The bitumen infills
fractures which show traces of slickensides, and also
occurs in small pods of broken shelly material mainly
composed of retroceramid bivalves. According to their
composition (45-73% tars; 1.4-6.2% asphaltenes),
these bitumens are classed as malthas.
Muna
Bitumen occurrences are illustrated on several
published maps in mid-Cambrian and overlying
Jurassic reservoir rocks of the Muna Arch in the area
around the River Muna, a tributary of the Lena, to
the south of the Olenek Uplift (Fig. 4). Belonin and
Samsonov (2004) designated these occurrences as
the Muna field, although they provided no further
information. The hydrocarbons were presumably
sourced from the Pre-Verkhoyan kitchen which is
located nearby to the east.
Chekurovka and Bulkur
These two accumulations, which may be connected,
lie within the north-south trending Chekurovka and
Bulkur (or Tuorasis) anticlines (Fig. 9; location in
Fig. 4), Chekurovka lying to the south of and en-
échelon with Bulkur. They are located on the extreme
eastern flank of the Olenek Arch or NW edge of the
Pre-Verkhoyan Trough, straddling the Lena River.
Together, these accumulations cover an area of
around 1450 km2 and comprise mainly maltha and
asphalt occurring in stratiform and vein accumulations
hosted by Vendian and Lower Cambrian, mainly
carbonate, reservoirs. The bitumen content reaches
1.8% (Khalimov, 1983). As noted above, the stable
isotope composition of the bitumens here (Kashirtsev
et al., 2010) bears similarities to that of bitumens from
the Olenek field located around 150 km to the west,
indicating that they share a common source. However,
Belonin and Samsonov (2004) stated that bitumens
present within Vendian and Lower Cambrian reservoir
rocks on the folded margin of the Verkhoyan Trough
have been metamorphosed to kerite and anthraxolite
(Fig. 3) as a result of heating by igneous intrusions
of presumed Cambrian age. This would indicate that
a proportion of the bitumens in this area was derived
from Precambrian source rocks, most probably the
Riphean of the Verkhoyan passive margin. Riphean
deposits of the Chekurovka anticline were described
by Khabarov and Izokh (2014) and in general consist
of carbonates of probable Late Riphean age which
include horizons with elevated levels of organic
matter. Although these authors carried out extensive
inorganic geochemical analyses of the deposits, they
did not analyse for carbon or organic compounds so
their source-rock potential is unclear. Vidal et al. (1995)
described the Lower Cambrian within both anticlines.
Ust’-Lena
Meyer and Freeman (2006) listed the Ust’-Lena (or
Lena estuary) Trough as a location in Eastern Siberia
in which a bitumen accumulation occurs. They provide
no further information on the accumulation, which is
located according to their map on the Lena delta which
20 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
progrades northwards into the Laptev Sea (Fig. 1).
Since this location lies beyond the East Siberian Basin,
it is not considered further here.
The Anabar Arch
Siligir-Markha
The large Siligir-Markha bitumen field is located in the
upper reaches of the Rivers Siligir and Markha on the
southern flank of the Anabar Arch (Fig. 4). Bitumen
is reservoired here in Middle Cambrian (Siligir Suite)
and Upper Cambrian limestones and dolomites which
crop out to the NW, and consists of maltha and asphalt.
The field occurs in an asymmetric fold which has a
gentle SW limb and a northern limb which dips at up
to 9°. Bitumen is present in a strip about 40-50 km
wide and 210 km long orientated NW-SE. At outcrop,
the bitumen occurs along bedding planes and fractures,
infilling vugs and intergranular pores in limestones with
porosities in excess of 6-8%; the host rocks contain 0.3-
15.0 wt% of bitumen (Kashirtsev et al., 2010) and have
been calculated to extend over an area of around 9100
km2 (Fig. 4). One well penetrated Riphean and Lower
Cambrian sandstones and carbonates which are also
permeated by bitumen.
Belonin and Samsonov (2004) considered that
the Siligir-Markha accumulation resulted from the
breaching of a deeper pre-existing trap in which
hydrocarbons were reservoired in the Vendian to Lower
Cambrian succession. Hydrogeological wells drilled
in recent years in the Daldyno-Alakitsk region have
provided new information on the distribution of oil
and bitumen shows within kimberlite pipes and in the
surrounding rocks in this area. In addition to bitumen,
well tests produced low yields of highly viscous oil.
In wells which penetrated kimberlite pipes (e.g. the
Udachnaya kimberlite; Starosel’tsev et al., 2013) and
in wells in the Markha area, significant bitumen shows
were recorded at depths of 500 m or more. Oil and
bitumen have also been encountered in wells located
on the southern side of the Udachnaya pipe at depths
from around 100-150 m to TD at 1500 m. The level of
saturation increased to a depth of 700 m, and individual
saturated zones varied from less than a metre to several
metres thick. Low oil saturations have been recorded
in Cambrian vuggy carbonates in wells located west of
the pipe at depths of 100-650 m; saturations increase
at depths between 650 m to 900 m, and beds up to
1 m thick are oil-saturated throughout. Intense oil
saturations occur at 1180-1475 m, with the thickness of
saturated zones reaching 11 m. Total bitumen resources
at Siligir-Markha have been estimated at around 2
billion tonnes (Kashirtsev et al., 2010).
East Anabar
The East Anabar bitumen field is located in the basins
of the Malaya and Bol’shaya Kuonamka rivers and
extends along the eastern limb of the Anabar Arch
for a distance of around 200 km (Fig. 4). In surface
outcrops, a number of intervals within the Vendian
to Lower Cambrian succession are saturated with
bitumen. Within Vendian carbonates, whose average
porosity and permeability is ca. 9-13% and 6-30 mD
respectively (Kashirtsev et al., 2010), the bituminous
interval is associated with a palaeo-weathered zone
2-17 m thick. Porosity occurs within fractures, primary
pores and vugs. Bitumen contents are typically 0.7-1.0
vol.% and up to 2.2 vol.%. Several bitumen-bearing
intervals also occur within the Lower Cambrian
Chabursk Horizon. Thus basal sandstones, 5 m
thick, contain 2.0-2.2 vol.% bitumen; and overlying
limestones and dolomites about 40 m thick have a
bitumen content of ~1.24 vol.% within a combination
of fracture, primary intergranular and vuggy porosity.
Sandstones within the 12 m thick upper part of
the Chabursk Horizon contain up to 3.5 vol.% of
bitumen. The top-seal for the accumulation comprises
a succession of argillaceous and marly limestones at
the top of the Aldan Series (Bazhenova and Kushmar,
2006; Kashirtsev et al., 2010).
The bitumens at East Anabar include asphaltites
which mainly occur in sandstones, and asphalts within
carbonates. The bitumen accumulation in the Vendian
to Lower Cambrian succession comprises a small
part of what must have been a much more significant
accumulation of oil which occupied a section of the
uplifted and eroded Anabar Arch. Bitumen-bearing
beds dip uniformly to the east towards the deepest part
of the Sukhansk Basin, where it has been proposed
that less-altered and more concentrated hydrocarbon
accumulations could occur, comprising not only
bitumen but also heavy oil (Polyakov et al., 2011).
Rassokha
The Rassokha bitumen accumulation is located
on the northern flank of the Anabar Arch (Fig. 4),
where Riphean sandstones of the Labaztakhsk and
Burdursk Suites unconformably underlie Lower
Cambrian dolomites and dip gently towards the
Yenisei-Khatanga Trough to the NW (Fig. 1). The
geometry of the accumulation is largely controlled
by that of the unconformity and the level of erosion
of the Labaztakhsk Suite. Around the mouth of the
River Khastyr, a tributary of the Rassokha, the bitumen
extends stratigraphically downwards to the base of
the Labaztakhsk Suite; while further to the NE, it
extends into the Burdursk Suite. The bitumen is present
within very coarse-grained sandstones and granule
conglomerates, and locally infills vugs and pores in
the Cambrian dolomites. The bitumen is classified as
maltha and occurs in intervals 10-15 m thick; overall
the accumulations cover an area of around 600 km2 and
at depths of up to 50 m below the present-day surface.
 Liu, Blackbourn et al.
Goldberg (1981) estimated that the bitumen
resources at Rassokha are of the order of 200-300
million tonnes.
Medvezh’ye
The Medvezh’ye bitumen accumulation lies on the
northwestern and western slope of the Anabar Arch,
to the SW of Rassokha (Fig. 4). Here, maltha and
asphalt occur within Upper Cambrian and Ordovician
dolomites and limestones forming lenses and stratiform
accumulations. The accumulation covers an estimated
area of around 225 km2, with a net thickness of 16 m.
The Aldan Arch
Although bitumen accumulations are widespread across
the Aldan Arch in the SE of the East Siberian Basin
(Fig. 1) and have long been known, their commercial
potential has been examined less thoroughly than
those in other parts of the basin such as the Anabar
and Olenek Arches. Bazhenova and Kushmar (2006)
noted that no systematic review of the geology or
geochemistry of the Aldan Arch bitumens had been
undertaken as of that time.
The Aldan Arch is a basement uplift located to
the south of the Vilyui Basin (Fig. 1). Uplift occurred
during the Late Proterozoic (Baikalian), and as a result
Riphean deposits are only a few hundred metres thick
or absent over much of the uplift although there is a
more widespread Vendian and Cambrian platformal
cover sequence. The easterly-dipping Riphean
succession displays erosional truncation beneath the
more flat-lying Vendian sequence which crops out
along the southern and eastern margins of the uplift
and which was described by Shishkin (2011) using data
from various wells. Cambrian deposits are exposed at
the surface over much of the western and central part
of the Arch, although the Cambrian is unconformably
overlain by Lower Jurassic coal-bearing clastics in
the east of the Arch and along its northern flanks
(Syundyukov et al., 2001).
Bitumen occurrences are widespread within Lower
Cambrian reservoir rocks, predominantly carbonates,
in the Aldan Arch, especially along the northern and
eastern flanks. Three areas with particularly high levels
of concentrations of bitumen occurrences are Sina,
Tuolba and Chenkiyam/Ilygir (Fig. 4). The Amga
accumulation occurs farther east, and bitumen also
occurs within the Aldan-Maya “Basin” on the Arch’s
eastern flank. In the absence of Lower Cambrian
evaporites here, it is likely that the mid-Cambrian
marine shales of the Kuonamsk Suite acted as a
regional top-seal and may have enabled significant
accumulations of crude oil to develop during the
Early Palaeozoic. Uplift later in the Palaeozoic,
prior to deposition of the Lower Jurassic succession
unconformably on the eroded Cambrian palaeo-
21
surface, resulted in the destruction of the oil although
substantial bituminous resources remain in place.
The development of hydrocarbon accumulations
over the Aldan Arch was described by Gol’dberg
(1981), although these authors did not recognise the
potential of the thick Riphean succession to the east
to act as a major source. A first phase of hydrocarbon
migration from these source rocks possibly occurred
as early as the Late Proterozoic, although the absence
of reliable cap rocks probably led to the majority of the
hydrocarbons being lost to the surface. The relatively
thin Riphean succession over parts of the Arch itself
may also locally have been productive, as indicated
by the occurrence of oil in the Riphean at Dikimde in
the Olekma valley (location in Fig. 4) (Kontorovich
et al., 2014).
Mid-Palaeozoic rifting resulted in development
of the Vilyui Basin immediately to the north of the
Aldan Arch (Fig. 1). This basin formed a major source
kitchen, and Gold’berg (1981) suggested that lateral
migration of hydrocarbons updip to reservoirs on the
Arch began in the Mesozoic. OM-rich intervals in the
Cambrian marine shales of the Kuonamsk Suite which,
as noted above, may formerly have acted as a regional
seal, also have source rock potential. The shales are
thermally immature over the Arch itself, but have
entered the oil window where more deeply buried on
its northern flank. Many of the bitumen accumulations
here are also associated with mobile oil, and sometimes
gas, consistent with the relatively young age of the
petroleum system which may still be active.
The widespread occurrences of “live” oil over
the Aldan Arch have encouraged some authors to
consider its potential for the discovery of conventional
hydrocarbon accumulations, despite the scarcity of
good-quality seals. Sitnikov and Zhernovskii (2011)
for example reviewed the conventional prospectivity
of the area.
The Lower Cambrian evaporites which form a
regional seal over large parts of the south and west
of the East Siberian Basin are not developed over
the Aldan Arch, except in the SW which was not
on a significant hydrocarbon-migration pathway.
No regionally-extensive seals occur within the
Vendian succession, although anhydrite beds occur
locally. Berilko et al. (2012b) and other authors
have proposed that oil accumulations could possibly
occur in Riphean reservoir rocks in the eastern flank
of the Arch, immediately beneath the base-Vendian
unconformity. Bituminous horizons are also present
in Vendian reservoirs in a number of locations in the
east of the Arch, and are presumably sourced from the
underlying (or nearby) Riphean. Thus bitumen-bearing
intervals occur in outcropping sections of the Lower
Vendian Aim Suite in the Aldan-Maya Basin (Fig. 4),
and in the Upper Vendian Ust’-Yudoma Suite at the
22 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
Mokuisk-1P and Kochomsk-1 wells (Berilko et al.,
2012a; Staroselt’tsev and Shishkin, 2012).
Starotsel’tsev et al. (2013) stated that the Cambrian
reservoir rocks at the Tuolba, Amga and Sina bitumen
accumulations comprise biohermal limestones,
secondary dolomites and other carbonate facies with
elevated reservoir quality. The accumulations occur
in stratigraphic traps or occasionally within small-
scale uplifts and structural terraces. These authors
emphasised the limited study that these accumulations
have attracted by comparing two separate estimates
of the total bitumen resources present on the northern
slope of the Aldan Arch: one of at least 3 billion tonnes,
and another of 129 billion tonnes. They considered that
the second estimate was too high.
Sina
The bitumen accumulation at Sina in the north of the
Aldan Arch (Fig. 4) comprises both stratiform and vein
bitumens within fractured Lower Cambrian limestones,
with saturations of 0.3-6.7 wt% (although Archegov et
al., 2006, quoted 1.8-5.0%). Bitumen is present in the
Sina Suite which crops out along the banks of the Sina
and Botoma rivers, tributaries of the Lena.
Tuolba
The Tuolba (or Tolba) bitumen accumulation is
located on the western flank of the Tuolba High (Fig.
4). Heavy oil shows occur within sandstones and
dolomites of Early Vendian age at depths of 400-500
m, and bitumen (asphalt) in saturations of 1.5-3.0% is
present in Lower Cambrian carbonates 5-6 m thick at
the surface. A flow of heavy oil obtained from a well
penetrating the Cambrian here in 1936 marked the first
discovery of mobile hydrocarbons in the entire East
Siberian province (Sitnikov and Zhernovsky, 2011).
Belonin and Samsonov (2004) stated that various types
of bitumen and heavy oil occur throughout virtually
the entire Lower Vendian to Lower Cambrian section.
Chenkiyam/Ilygir
These two areas, lying around 200 km upstream
along the River Lena from the Tuolba accumulation
(Fig. 4), were highlighted by Vasil’yev and Cherskiy
(1964) as having yielded intense (though presumably
uncommercial) flows of oil and oil-and-gas respectively.
Belonin and Samsonov (2004) stated that the oil
accumulations here are reservoired in the clastic
Vendian Dikidinsk and Yudoma Suites and that they are
only in the initial stages of unroofing and degradation.
It is notable that the (mostly) Cambrian
accumulations described above occur along the
northern flanks of the Aldan Arch, but appear not to
extend into the most structurally elevated sections
of the Arch including the Tuolba High or the central
section of the Yakutsk High (Fig. 4). It is not clear
whether hydrocarbons migrating from the Vilyui rift
basin to the north either were not transported farther
south, or whether they did in fact reach these more
elevated structures but were lost to the surface, either
immediately or during subsequent uplift.
Amga
The Amga (or Bologur) bitumen accumulation is
located on the eastern flank of the Tuolba High and
to the south of the Yakutsk High (Fig. 4). Asphalt
and maltha are present here at the surface in Lower
Cambrian carbonates over an extensive area. Bitumen-
saturated zones 1.5-3.0 m thick occur, although
saturations do not exceed 1.5 wt%. Safronov et al.
(2014) stated bitumens permeated by lighter oils
in dolomitised limestones of the Middle Cambrian
Tankhai Suite were recorded in several shallow (83 m
and 282 m) hydrogeological wells on the right-bank
of the River Amga during the 1970s and 1980s, and
the area was provisionally referred to as Bologur after
the name of a local settlement. A core of oil-saturated
vuggy limestone from one of these wells was illustrated
by Kashirtsev (2004). Archegov et al. (2006) reported
that bitumens are concentrated around faults.
Safronov et al. (2014) published a detailed
geochemical analysis of asphalt from surface
occurrences which they considered to represent an
active seep. They concluded that the asphalt differs
from the Cambrian-reservoired oils present in
accumulations on the Nepa-Botuoba Anteclise located
to the SW (Fig. 1). Kashirtsev and Kontorovich (2006),
however, conducted biomarker analyses on both
Cambrian bituminous claystones from the Aldan Arch
and on Cambrian oil shows from one of the Amga
(Bologur) hydrogeological wells (and in addition
on oil from shallow wells at Tit-Ebe and Rassoloda
along the River Lena on the northern flank of the
Arch). These authors concluded that there is a clear
genetic relationship between the Cambrian oils and
the Cambrian (Kuonamsk Suite) source rock.
The location of the Amga field (Fig. 4) is relatively
close to the area of Riphean subcrop to the east, and
hydrocarbons could possibly therefore have originated
from Riphean source rocks. However, the biomarker
analysis, together with the mobile nature of some of
the oil, is consistent with a Cambrian source. The oil
is therefore interpreted to have migrated from mature
Cambrian source rocks located in the eastern part of
the Vilyui Basin to the north and NE (Fig. 1).
Cambrian sedimentary rocks at outcrop in the
far east of the Aldan Arch, mostly carbonates and
claystones, and within the Yudoma-Maya thrust
belt beyond (Fig. 1), are also bituminous in places.
Starosel’tsev and Shishkin (2012), for example,
described the Cambrian succession outcropping
beside the River Khanda (Fig. 4). The 75.5 m thick
 Liu, Blackbourn et al.
Lower Inikansk Suite here, a little above the base
of the Cambrian, comprises interbedded dark grey
and black claystones, calcareous claystones and
limestone beds including phosphorite concretions. The
overlying Upper Inikansk Suite is 92.5 m thick, and
the middle unit (20 m thick) comprises alternations of
black calcareous claystones, limestones and siliceous
limestones with bituminous limestones at the top.
Aldan-Maya Basin
The Aldan-Maya “Basin” is not a distinct sedimentary
basin but comprises an area in the SE of the Aldan
Arch (Fig. 4) around the lower reaches of the Maya
River basin close to where it merges with the Aldan
River. To the east is the Khyllakhsk Zone, comprising
the frontal thrusts of the Verkhoyan belt which in this
area is referred to as the Yudoma-Maya Zone (Fig.
1) . Much of the Aldan-Maya Basin corresponds to
outcropping Riphean and Vendian sedimentary rocks,
contrasting with the Cambrian and Jurassic which
forms the cover over most of the Aldan Arch. The
Vendian unconformably overlies the thick Riphean
succession which is thought to contain major source
rocks.
The Riphean succession in this area was described
by Shishkin et al. (2010). They noted that the
Lakhandinsk well, drilled in 1940 close to the River
Maya, recovered core from the Upper Riphean
Malginsk Suite at a depth of 513 m which contained
droplets of liquid oil. Their analysis of 15 outcrop
samples of claystones, siltstones and carbonates from
the Malginsk Suite showed TOC values ranging up
to 13.6% (average 4.5%), and maturity values around
MK2, close to the main oil window (see footnote on
page 142). They drew attention to a unit up to 20 m
thick in the Malginsk Suite which was composed of
black, bituminous limestones with beds of oil shale.
They also described numerous shows of viscous
and solid bitumens within outcropping carbonates
and clastics of Middle to Late Riphean ages in the
Malginsk, Tsipandinsk, Neryuensk and Kandyksk
Suites.
Berilko et al. (2012b) highlighted possible reef-
related traps in the Aldan-Maya Basin within the
Riphean section. However, the generally steep,
eastward dip of the beds limits the scope for any such
potential trapping mechanism, and the hydrocarbons
within the Riphean described above from Shishkin et
al. (2010) appear mostly to occur either within source
rock intervals or as residues along migration routes.
However, the common occurrence of hydrocarbons
in the Riphean succession is noteworthy. Shishkin
et al. (2010) described several Riphean units with
appreciable reservoir potential and the possible
occurrence of commercial-sized Riphean-hosted
accumulations cannot be discounted. However, the
23
main significance of the Riphean succession in the
Aldan-Maya Basin is as a source for the bitumen
occurring in overlying Vendian and Cambrian
reservoirs. Nafikov (2013) quoted an estimate that 84.7
billion tonnes of oil may have migrated from Riphean
source rocks in the basin.
Bitumen occurrences in the Vendian to basal-
Cambrian succession in the area of the Aldan-Maya
Basin have been described widely in the literature.
Khomentovskii and Karlova (1994), for example,
described bituminous dolomitic horizons in the Lower
Vendian Aim Suite and in Upper Vendian weathered
carbonates at a number of locations in the south of
the basin. Bitumens have been observed along the
River Maya and its tributaries the Aim, Ingili, and
Bolshoi and Malyi Kandyk. Nafikov (2013) described
bituminous limestones in both the Vendian Yukandinsk
and Sardaninsk Suites, and in the overlying basal-
Cambrian Pestrotsvetnaya and Inikansk Suites.
Similar bitumen occurrences in other localities were
documented by Shishkin et al. (2010). Furthermore,
two deep wells located to the west and NW of the
Aldan-Maya Basin, Khochomsk-1 and Mokuisk-1,
penetrated bituminous Vendian and basal-Cambrian
horizons (Starosel’tsev and Shishkin, 2012; Shishkin et
al., 2010). The lower 15 m of the Vendian Ust’-Yudoma
Suite in well Khochomsk-1 mainly comprised dark-
grey claystones with marl beds which “had a strong
smell of paraffin”, and the lower half of the Suite was
saturated in places with viscous oil. The 31 m thick
Inikansk Suite, close to the base of the Cambrian, was
composed of black, bituminous claystones and marls
with limestone beds. Similarly within the Mokuisk-1
well, the argillaceous limestones of the Ust’-Yudoma
Suite have a bituminous smell on fresh surfaces, and
the Inikansk Suite comprises bituminous limestones
and claystones with marl beds. It is not clear whether
the bitumens within the Cambrian in either of these
wells are allochthonous, i.e. migrated. However, owing
to the presence of the Vendian bitumens substantially
beneath the Lower Cambrian Kuonamsk Suite source-
rock horizon, it is most probable that they were sourced
from within the Riphean.
A detailed analysis of biomarkers within Riphean,
Vendian and Lower to Middle Cambrian source
rocks within the Aldan-Maya Basin (and other areas
of Eastern Siberia) was published by Dakhnova et
al. (2014). However, they did not use the data to tie
allochthonous oils and bitumens to potential source
rocks.
Other Areas
Several other, relatively poorly-defined accumulations
of bitumen have been noted in the SW of the East
Siberian Basin including Turukhan and Chunya, in
various locations in the Tunguska Basin, and in SW
24 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
Angara-Lena near Irkutsk in the southern flank of the
Nepa-Botuoba Anteclise where the Cambrian evaporite
seal is partially eroded (locations in Fig. 4). These
accumulations are described briefly below.
Turukhan
The bitumen field at Turukhan is located to the south
of the city of Noril’sk (Fig. 4) on the Turukhan Step (or
Turukhan-Noril’sk Ridge) (Fig. 1), and is sometimes
referred to as the Kureika-Letninsk field. Maltha and
asphalt occur here as lenses and veins in dolomites
of Vendian, Early and Middle Cambrian and Early
Silurian ages, and possibly also in the Riphean (Belonin
and Samsonov, 2004). These latter authors noted that
bitumen concentrations increase close to faults and
in zones of increased fracturing or brecciation. The
variety of bitumen types and the different forms in
which it occurs may indicate that oils migrated to
their present locations in multiple episodes over a
prolonged period, both before and after emplacement
of the Triassic trap basalts, which may have contributed
both to the thermal maturity of source rocks and the
degradation of hydrocarbons.
Tunguska
A number of un-named bitumen accumulations
occur throughout the Tunguska Basin (Fig. 4)
and are commonly found in association with the
numerous Lower Triassic intrusive trap basalts.
Analysis of one such accumulation demonstrated an
elemental composition comprising 82.3% carbon,
9.5% hydrogen, 5.0% sulphur and 5.2% oxygen
and nitrogen (Meyer and Freeman, 2006). Belonin
and Samsonov (2004) proposed that stratabound
accumulations of anthraxolite (metamorphosed oil;
Fig. 3) associated with basalt intrusions in the Gornoi,
Sigovo-Podkammenoi and other areas demonstrate
that the precursor oil was emplaced prior to Triassic
magmatism.
Chunya
The Chunya bitumen accumulation covers an area
of around 16,800 km2 in the centre of the Tunguska
Basin (location in Fig. 4). The reservoir rock consists
of Middle and Upper Ordovician limestones in
which three bitumen-saturated zones have combined
thicknesses of up to 8 m, with saturations varying from
0.2 to 3.6 wt%. Lower Chunya is a separate, small
accumulation to the SW (Fig. 4), on the northern flank
of the Baikit Anteclise.
Southwest Angara-Lena
Bitumen accumulations in the south of the Siberian
Platform are very sparsely described in the literature.
Belonin and Samsonov (2004) describe “kirified”*
sandstones of the Vendian Bokhansk (?Parfenov) Suite
recovered in core from the Tulun stratigraphic well in
the SW of the Angara-Lena Step (Fig. 1) during the
1960s. Similar sandstones were subsequently traced
over a wide region between the Pre-Sayan Trough and
the area between the Angara and Lena Rivers at the
latitude of Bratsk. They have been studied at outcrop
in the Pre-Sayan area (Fig. 1) in the upper reaches of
the River Iya, close to the Arshan settlement, and in
the upper River Urik (Samsonov and Larichev, 2008).
Poorly-sorted, polymict Lower Vendian sandstones
and conglomerates are exposed here along the river
banks within beds that dip uniformly to the NE.
They are described by these authors as containing
solid bituminous matter which fills intergranular pore
spaces and envelops grains and pebbles. The bitumen-
saturated beds within the studied sections have an
apparent thickness of 15-20 m. Bituminous rocks have
a yellow or grey-green colour (dark-grey where heavily
saturated), while the surrounding less-permeable and
non-bituminous facies are red-coloured. Belonin and
Samsonov (2004) ascribed the differences in colour
to the reduction of ferric iron during hydrocarbon
migration within sandstone carrier beds. Solid bitumen
comprises 1-6% of samples studied.
The Southwest Angara-Lena bitumen accumulation
(Fig. 4) is interpreted to have been formed as a result
of the degradation of liquid oil in a pre-existing
accumulation during the Mesozoic, with the displaced
oil having migrated along the Sayan fault. Bitumen
has previously been calculated to occur over an area
of 30,000 km2 with more than 35 billion tonnes of total
resources (Belonin and Samsonov, 2004).
RESOURCE ESTIMATES
Previous estimates of the bitumen resources in the
Eastern Siberian Basin have varied widely, from
91.753 billion barrels (Gol’dberg, 1981) to 701.3-801.3
billion barrels (Medaisko, 1990) and 598.5 billion
barrels (Starosel’tsev, 2002). This variation is due to
the variety of assessment methodologies used and the
sparseness of available data. Assessments by Meyer’s
research group declined from 647-729 billion barrels
(Meyerhoff and Meyer, 1987) to 61.74 billion barrels
(Meyer and Freeman, 2006).
A new attempt has now been made to quantify
possible total in-place bitumen resources for each of
the main accumulations in the East Siberian Basin
described in the text. The resulting estimates of total
resources, expressed in million tonnes (MMt), are
summarised in Table 2.
Three main areas with bitumen accumulations
are identified: the Olenek Arch, the Anabar Arch,
*Kir is an informal Russian term for solid, often oxidised,
bitumen.
 Liu, Blackbourn et al.
and the Aldan Arch (Fig. 4). In addition, a fourth
category “Other Areas” was also considered. This
division into areas differs slightly from that used in
the descriptions above in that the Chekurovka, Bulkur
and Muna accumulations which were for convenience
described in relation to nearby major structures are here
grouped within “Other Areas”. Initially, an attempt
was made to provide basic thickness maps for each of
the main bitumen accumulations. However, this was
found not to be possible owing in part to a lack of
sufficient data. Also, even where quite abundant data
are available in the literature (such as for the Olenek
field), the bitumens are too patchy and variable in their
distribution, occurring at a variety of stratigraphic
levels, for any meaningful maps of thickness variations
to be constructed.
Instead of thickness maps, each bitumen field was
divided into one, two or three “zones”, depending on
its size and on the available data. The Siligir-Markha
field in the Tunguska Basin, for example (Fig. 4), was
divided into an inner zone or core area in which the
highest density of bitumen is considered to occur, and
an outlying area with a lower density and/or thickness
of bitumen. Siligir-Markha was included, in turn,
within the extensive Anabar Arch bitumen-bearing
region which also includes the Medvezh’e, Rassokha
and East Anabar fields and other bitumen occurrences.
The total area of each of these bitumen-bearing
areas is shown on Table 2. The larger areas exclude
the areas of any smaller named bitumen accumulations
within them. For example, the area of the Anabar Arch
“outlying areas” is shown in Table 2 to be 179,650
km2, which is the 337,600 km2 bitumen-bearing area
of the entire Anabar Arch minus the areas of the four
named accumulations which are located within it (East
Anabar, Rassokha, Medvezh’ye and Siligir-Markha).
Table 2 includes the age of the principal reservoir
or reservoirs and the stratigraphic terminology where
appropriate, although in practice many bitumen
accumulations extend over a wide stratigraphic range
so that bitumen may be found beyond the horizons
identified. The table also includes the principal bitumen
type, using the terminology shown on Fig. 3. An
estimate has been made of the average net thickness
of bitumen-bearing rocks within each of the defined
areas based on the literature descriptions, together with
an estimate of bitumen saturation. In most cases, the
saturation is quoted in the literature in weight-%, and
this was converted to volume-% using a factor of 2.7
(the dominant factor where saturations are quite low
being the rock density, for which a value of around 2.7
g/cm3 is an estimated average). Bitumen volumes are
therefore calculated by multiplying the total net volume
of bitumen-saturated rock (= net thickness x area) by
the volume-% saturation. This was converted to total
resources in million (MM) tonnes by applying a density
25
factor, using typical densities for each bitumen type
documented by Shargorodskii (2006, their Table 1).
Owing to the very large areas over which some
bitumen accumulations occur, total resources may be
very high even where estimated saturations and net
reservoir thicknesses are so low that they are highly
unlikely to be economically recoverable. In order
to provide a simple indication of this, a column is
also provided in which the resource density has been
calculated, in MMt per km2. This value varies widely
from 1012.5 MMt/km2 for the Olenek field to 0.3
MMt/km2 for outlying areas of the Olenek Arch. These
figures are intended to provide a simple indication of
potential recoverability.
Various estimates of total resources for some
of the bitumen accumulations described here have
been published previously and are mentioned in the
text above. Owing to the level of uncertainty behind
many of these calculations, the differences between
previously-published figures and those calculated in
this study are not unexpected. Generally, however, the
figures from different sources are of the same order-
of-magnitude, which provides some reassurance as to
their validity.
We have calculated the total bitumen resources in
the East Siberian Basin for which there is sufficient data
to provide meaningful estimates – which are considered
to include all of the main accumulations – as 24,639.9
MMt. Data in Table 2 were utilised in a wider study
of global bitumen resources reported by Liu et al.
(2019; see below), who used resource densities and
other parameters to calculate resources within those
East Siberian fields which they considered potentially
capable of economic development, totalling 14,760
MMt. Taking into account international analogues,
including from Canada, they calculated potential
recoverable reserves in the East Siberian Basin of 6100
MMt (approximately 33,900 MM brl).
DISCUSSION
This study formed part of an assessment of the global
distribution and resource volumes of heavy oils and
oil sands undertaken by the China National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC) (Liu et al., 2019). Of the 69
heavy-oil basins and 32 oil-sand basins considered,
over 80% of resources were found to occur within
Cenozoic and Cretaceous reservoirs. The Vendian-
Cambrian reservoirs hosting bitumens in the East
Siberian Basin were the oldest recorded, as were the
Riphean source rocks. They are therefore of interest
not only for their economic potential but also as a
consequence of their age.
While the present study concentrated on the
development of the bitumen resources in the East
Siberian Basin, to understand their origin it was
Table 2. Data used in calculation of estimated bitumen resources (total in-place) of the Siberian Platform. A full explanation is provided in the text.
26

Name Main Reservoir Main Reservoir Age Main Hydrocarbon Type Area Ave Net Bitumen-saturated Ave Sat Ave Sat Bitumen Volume Density Bitumen Resources Resource Density
3
(Colour or ornament refers to depic�on on Fig. 4) km2 Thickness, m volume, MMm wt% vol% MMm3 g/cm3 MMt MMt per km2
Olenek Arch
Olenek Permian maltha-asphalt 5,850 15 87,750 2.5 6.75 5923.125 1.0 5,923.1 1,012.5
Central Olenek (brown) Kessyusa Suite Vendian-Cambrian asphalt-asphal�te 1,750 1 1,750 1.0 2.7 47.3 1.1 52.0 29.7
Kuoyka & Sololisk (brown) Riphean and Early Cambrian maltha-asphalt 1,750 5 8,750 3.0 8.1 708.8 1.0 708.8 405.0
Other areas (orange) Various Various maltha-asphalt 60,150 0.2 12,030 0.2 0.5 65.0 1.0 65.0 1.1
Outlying areas (lined) Various Various maltha-asphalt 16,900 0.1 1,690 0.1 0.3 4.6 1.0 4.6 0.3
Kelimyar Kelimyar Suite Middle Jurassic maltha No data No data No es�mate possible
Total for Olenek Arch: 6,753.4
Anabar Arch
East Anabar (central area; brown) Vendian asphalt-asphal�te 2,400 10 24,000 0.9 216.0 1.1 237.6 99.0
East Anabar (central area; brown) Basal Beds Early Cambrian asphalt-asphal�te 2,400 5 12,000 2.0 240.0 1.1 264.0 110.0
East Anabar (central area; brown) Lower Chabursk Early Cambrian asphalt-asphal�te 2,400 40 96,000 0.5 480.0 1.1 528.0 220.0
East Anabar (central area; brown) Upper Chabursk Early Cambrian asphalt-asphal�te 2,400 12 28,800 2.0 576.0 1.1 633.6 264.0
East Anabar outlying areas (orange) Various Various asphalt-asphal�te 28,750 5 143,750 1.0 1437.5 1.1 1,581.3 55.0

Rassokha (central area; brown) Labaztakhsk & Burdursk suites Early Riphean (+Cambrian) maltha 600 10 6,000 2.0 120.0 1.0 120.0 200.0
Rassokha (outlying; pale brown) Labaztakhsk & Burdursk suites Early Riphean (+Cambrian) maltha 16,900 1 16,900 1.0 169.0 1.0 169.0 10.0

Medvezh'ye (central area; brown) Late Cambrian-Ordovician maltha-asphalt 225 16 3,600 2.0 72.0 1.0 72.0 320.0
Medvezh'ye (outlying; olive) Late Cambrian-Ordovician maltha-asphalt 26,575 1 26,575 0.5 132.9 1.0 132.9 5.0

Siligir-Markha (central area; brown) Siligir Suite + Upper Cambrian Middle-Late Cambrian maltha-asphalt (& others) 9,100 5 45,500 2.0 5.4 2457.0 1.0 2,457.0 270.0
Siligir-Markha (outlying; orange) Siligir Suite + Upper Cambrian Middle-Late Cambrian maltha-asphalt (& others) 73,400 1 73,400 0.5 1.4 990.9 1.0 990.9 13.5

Outlying areas (lined) Various Various maltha-asphal�te 179,650 1 179,650 0.3 449.1 1.0 449.1 2.5
Total for Anabar Arch: 7,635.4
Aldan Arch
Tuolba (central areas; grey) Early Cambrian asphalt (+ heavy oil) 3,650 4 14,600 1.5 4.1 591.3 1.0 591.3 162.0
Tuolba (outlying - hatched) Early Cambrian asphalt (+ heavy oil) 5,550 1 5,550 0.5 1.4 74.9 1.0 74.9 13.5

Amga (hatched) Amga &Tankhai suites Early and Middle Cambrian maltha-asphalt (+ heavy oil) 11,500 2 23,000 1.0 2.0 460.0 1.0 460.0 40.0

Sina (central area; grey) Early Cambrian asphalt-asphal�te 3,200 3 9,600 1.5 4.1 388.8 1.1 427.7 133.7
Sina (outlying - hatched) Early Cambrian asphalt-asphal�te 4,500 1 4,500 0.5 1.4 60.8 1.1 66.8 14.9

Chenkiyam/Iligyr (central areas; grey) Vendian and Early Cambrian maltha-asphalt (+ oil & gas) 550 2 1,100 1.5 4.1 44.6 1.0 44.6 81.0
Chenkiyam/Iligyr (outlying - hatched) Vendian and Early Cambrian maltha-asphalt (+ oil & gas) 7,550 0.5 3,775 0.5 1.4 51.0 1.0 51.0 6.8

Outlying areas (lined) Early Cambrian maltha-asphalt 87,800 0.5 43,900 0.3 0.7 296.3 1.0 296.3 3.4

Aldan-Maya (hatched) Ust'-Yudoma & Aim Suites Vendian (+ Riphean) maltha-asphalt 20,900 5 104,500 1.0 1045.0 1.0 1,045.0 50.0
Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin

Total for Aldan Arch: 3,057.6

Other Areas
Chekurovka & Bulkur (central area; grey) Vendian-Cambrian asphalt 1,450 3 4,350 1.0 43.5 1.1 47.9 33.0
Chekurovka & Bulkur (outlying - hatched) Vendian-Cambrian asphalt 10,000 1 10,000 0.5 50.0 1.1 55.0 5.5

Turukhan (lined) Riphean-Silurian Varied 16,000 No data 0.0 No es�mate possible

Sigovo-Podkamennoe (grey) Riphean-Silurian Varied 400 No data

Chunya Middle-Late Ordovician 16,800 3 50,400 1.0 2.7 1360.8 1.0 1,360.8 81.0

Lower Chunya No data 1200 No es�mate possible

Muna Mid-Cambrian & Jurassic 28,300 No es�mate possible

Southwest Angara-Lena Bokhansk Suite Vendian 57,300 5 286,500 2.0 5730.0 1.0 5,730.0 100.0

Tunguska No systema�c data No es�mate possible

Total for other areas: 7,193.7

Total quan�fied bitumen resources: 24,639.9 MMt

 Liu, Blackbourn et al.
necessary also to examine the conventional hydrocarbon
accumulations in the region, which are also uniquely
ancient. In most hydrocarbon provinces, source rocks
tend to occupy the deeper, central parts of the basin and
the fluids generated migrate up-dip, often to reservoirs
around the basin margins. As was noted above, the East
Siberian “Basin” is not strictly a sedimentary basin but
conforms to an ancient continental block or platform
which during the Proterozoic was largely surrounded by
passive ocean-facing margins. As the various oceanic
segments closed during the Late Proterozoic and
Palaeozoic, marine sediments including organic-rich
source rocks were thrusted or folded, often resulting in
their burial and thermal maturation as a result of which
they generated very large volumes of hydrocarbons.
Some of these hydrocarbons were expelled and entered
permeable carrier beds on the margins of the platform.
Subsequently they were transported by long-distance
migration into reservoir rocks which largely comprised
carbonates and sandstones draped over basement highs
such as the Anabar, Olenek and Aldan Arches in the
north and the Baikit and Nepa-Botuoba Anteclises in
the south.
In the south of the Siberian Platform, liquid
hydrocarbons mostly migrated into Vendian to
Cambrian reservoirs, and accumulations were sealed
by thick Cambrian evaporites. These evaporites were
precipitated to the south of a barrier reef system which
extended from WNW to ESE across the Platform (Fig.
2). The oils in this area appear to have been preserved
by a combination of the relative stability of the southern
part of the Platform, which has undergone neither
significant uplift nor deep burial, and the high salinity
of formation fluids which may have inhibited the
growth of organisms responsible for biodegradation.
In the north of the Platform and in other areas where
the Cambrian evaporites are not present, significant
oil accumulations also developed but were degraded
during later uplift and partial unroofing of the
reservoirs. This led to the loss of volatile components
of the oil through biodegradation and other processes,
so that only heavy oils and bitumens now remain.
CONCLUSIONS
Despite its name, the East Siberian “Basin” comprises
an ancient continental block – the Siberian Platform
– which includes a number of extensive uplifted
“arches” composed of basement rocks. In the south
of the platform, the Baikit and Nepa-Botuoba Arches
are draped by Vendian and Cambrian sediments. In
the north, the Anabar and Olenek Arches have been
uplifted and display variably eroded crests. The Aldan
Arch in the east, on the southern flank of the Vilyui
Basin (which was initiated as a Devonian rift) is similar
to the arches in the south of the Platform but also has a
27
thick cover of Jurassic deposits. Apart from the Vilyui
Basin, the only major basinal area in the interior of the
Platform is the Tunguska Basin (also known as the
Kureika Syncline) in the west.
The East Siberian Basin is unique in hosting
the oldest-known large-scale petroleum systems
in the world. Proterozoic (Riphean) marine source
rocks, which were deposited on the passive margins
which surrounded much of the Platform, generated
hydrocarbons as they were buried, heated and folded
during a series of collisions. The hydrocarbons were
transported by long-distance migration through carrier
beds to reservoirs in sediments draping the basement
uplifts, to form giant oil and gas fields. Subsequent
uplift and unroofing of some of these uplifts, especially
in the north and east of the Platform where the oil was
not preserved beneath a regional seal comprising an
extensive succession of Cambrian evaporites, has led
to degradation of the oil to leave widespread giant
bitumen accumulations.
The bitumen accumulations occur mainly in
Precambrian, Cambrian and Permian reservoirs. They
began to form from precursor oils during the Permian;
owing to the long subsequent period of transformation
and the loss of volatile components, the bitumen is
likely to be highly immobile and difficult to produce.
However positive factors include the enormous
areas over which bitumens occur in the larger-scale
accumulations, and the relatively low density of
faulting in the comparatively stable platformal area.
Available data on all reported bitumen
accumulations within the East Siberian Basin have
been reviewed in order to understand their origin and
distribution, and to undertake a resource assessment.
Total bitumen volumes both of named fields and
of less well-defined areas in which bitumens have
been observed have been calculated. The density of
bitumen resources, measured as MMt/km2, has also
been calculated as a guide to potential commerciality.
The most significant accumulations, both in size and
density, occur over the Olenek, Anabar and Aldan
Arches. The largest occurrence, and the only one to
have been systematically appraised, is the Olenek
field. Total bitumen resources here are estimated as
5923.1 MMt within a mainly Permian reservoir, with
an areal density of 1012.5 MMt/km2. The largest field
on the Anabar Arch is Siligir-Markha (central area),
with estimated resources of 2457.0 MMt and an areal
density of 270.0 MMt/km2. The reservoir here is
Middle to Upper Cambrian. On the Aldan Arch, the
Tuolba field (central areas) has estimated resources
of 591.3 MMt in a Lower Cambrian reservoir, with
an areal density of 162.0 MM t/km2.
Our calculated total of all bitumen resources
within the East Siberian Basin is 24,639.9 MMt.
Disregarding accumulations which we regard as
28 Bitumen resources of the East Siberian Basin
either of insufficient resource-density or too small to
merit consideration, this figure has been reduced to
14,760 MMt. Recoverable reserves, by analogy with
comparable resources worldwide, are calculated as
6100 MMt (approx. 33,900 MM brl).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge funding for the 14th
Five-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological
Innovation. We thank the late Moira Thomson of
Blackbourn Geoconsulting who contributed significant
knowledge during the early stages of the project, and
Lisa Robertson for technical assistance and drafting.
We are also grateful to Wang Zhaoming for his helpful
comments, and an anonymous reviewer, all of whom
helped to improve the manuscript.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new
data were created or analysed in this study.
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