RECENT APPLICATIONS OF THE MODERN

THEORY OF ABIOGENIC HYDROCARBON

ORIGINS: DRILLING & DEVELOPMENT OF
OIL & GAS FIELDS IN THE
DNIEPER-DONETS BASIN

V. A. Krayushkin, T. I. Tchebanenko, V. P. Klochko, Ye. S.

Dvoryanin (all at: Institute of Geological Sciences, Academy
of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev); J. F. Kenney (Institute of Earth
Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, C.I.S. & Gas
Resources Corporation, Houston, TX 77098, U.S.A)

Abstract:

Here are reported certain specific observations of

properties of the Earth's crust which were
conducted by drilling and which are not only of
profound scientific significance but also of direct
economic value to the nation which supported the
project. The scientific results reported here fall
into two categories: (1), the discoveries of large
deposits of commercially producible petroleum in
geological environments which would be
considered extraordinary (at least in the U.S.A.);
and (2), the analyses of the chemical, bacteriology
and paleontology investigations of that oil for
determination of its origin.
Of greater scientific importance than the content
of the specific observations or laboratory tests is
the context of the body of scientific knowledge
through the perspective of which this extensive
project was initiated and carried out. This project
has been carried out from its inception in explicit
recognition of the modern Russian theory of
abyssal, abiotic hydrocarbon origins. Although the
modern Russian theory of abiogenic hydrocarbon
origins is mostly unknown in the U.S.A., there is
not space in this short article to describe it. Thus
it must suffice to state simply that the modern
 theory of hydrocarbon origins recognizes that
petroleum is a primordial material erupted from
great depth.

Here is described a recent exploration project on the

flanks of the Dnieper-Donets Basin which has been
conducted in explicit recognition of the modern theory. This
specific project has been chosen from many others because
it is a "pure" modern project: the geological area explored
is one which had been extensively studied in the past and
had been previously condemned (according to the
perspective of an hypothesis of a biological origin for
petroleum) as possessing no potential for petroleum
production; the exploration techniques applied, from the
initial work-up, through the well planning, to the production
tests have been carried out in ways peculiar to such for
abiogenic hydrocarbons in crystalline environments; and
the scientific tests upon the petroleum produced were
specifically designed to test the assumption that the oil and
gas originated at great depth in the Earth.

The Dnieper-Donets Basin runs in a NW-SE direction

between 30.6°E-40.5°E; its northern and southern borders
are traced from 50.0°N-51.8°N and 47.8°N-50.0°N,
respectively. For the first 45 year period of the geological
study of the Northern Monoclinal Flank of the Dnieper-
Donets Basin, its sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous
rock had been condemned as possessing no potential for
petroleum production for reasons of the complete absence
of any "source rock" (so-called) and the presence of active,
strongly-circulating artesian waters. Recently the area was
reexamined according to the perspective of the modern
theory of abyssal, abiotic hydrocarbon origins.

Because the modern theory of hydrocarbon origins

recognizes hydrocarbons as primordial material erupted
from great depth, the exploration process began with a
detailed analysis of the tectonic history and geological
structure of the crystalline basement of the Northern
Monoclinal Flank of the Dnieper-Donets Basin. The
exploration and drilling project which followed resulted in
the discovery and development of 12 fields with oil reserves
equal to 219 million metric tons of oil equivalent, the major
part of which is produced from the Precambrian crystalline
basement. These petroleum fields have been discovered in
a narrow strip approximately 30-35 km wide and 400 km
long near the Northern Marginal Deep Fault where the oil
and gas bearing rocks are Middle and Lower Carboniferous
period sandstones and Precambrian granites, amphibolites,
and schists of the crystalline basement complex. This
exploration project generated also the discovery of a new
gas producing area within a region 30 km wide and 100 km
long near Khark for which the producible gas in place has
been calculated to be 100 billion cubic meters.

Of a total number of 61 wells drilled, 37 produce

commercial quantities of oil or gas, an exploration success
rate of 55%. The initial flows from the productive wells
varied between 40-350 metric tons per day of oil and
100,000-1,600,000 cubic meters of gas per day. The
specific gravity of the oil from the upper sedimentary levels
ranges between 25°-48°API, that from the Precambrian
crystalline basement rock between 28°-48°API. The sulfur
content of the oil is uniformly less than 0.3%. The gas from
the Precambrian crystalline basement contains also
condensates. The specific formations and depths from
which petroleum has been discovered and is now being
produced are as follow:

1.) Production from the upper sedimentary levels: The

oil and gas bearing reservoir rocks in the upper
sedimentary levels are Middle and Lower Carboniferous
period sandstones. The oil wells which produce from the
Carboniferous period sandstones have reservoir depths at
the following levels: 3133-3172 m; 3200-3212 m; 3530-
3543 m; and 3666-3688 m. The gas wells which produce
from the Carboniferous period sandstones have reservoir
depths: 1738-1754 m; 1802-1835 m; 2034-2063 m;
2813-2854 m; 2905-2994 m; 2910-2943 m; 2987-
3526 m; 2990-3176 m; 3080-3339 m; 3089-3135 m;
3425-3603 m; 3439-3442 m; 3450-3469 m; 3472-3500 m;
3506-3528 m; 3530-3543 m; 3638-3724 m; 3824-3845 m;
3874-3933 m; 3962-4002 m; 4007-4100 m; 4423-
4463 m; and 4500-4505 m.

2.) Production from the Precambrian crystalline

basement: In addition to these reservoirs in the
sedimentary rock, above, the exploration drilling has
discovered five reservoirs in the Precambrian crystalline
basement rock complex at depths ranging from several
meters to 200 meters below the top of the crystalline
basement. From such traditionally unusual reservoir rock,
oil and gas wells produce from the following levels: 3135-
3151 m; 3164-3172 m; 3167-3173 m; 3192-3196 m;
3200-3280 m; 3213-3235 m; 3240-3260 m; 3244-3272 m,
3432-3498 m; 3468-3480 m; 3501-3520 m; 3516-
3529 m; 3521-3531 m; 3547-3550 m; 3552-3570 m;
3590-3612 m; 3610-3625 m; 3618-3687 m; 3636-
3735 m; 3685-3695 m; 3735-3800 m; and 4020-4041 m.

The trapping strata for the reservoirs in the

Carboniferous period sandstones are shallower shale
formations, as is typical for sedimentary reservoirs. The
trapping strata for the reservoirs in the Precambrian
crystalline basement are impervious, non-fractured,
essentially horizontal zones of crystalline rock which
alternate with the fractured, uncompacted, bed-like zones
of granite and amphibolite.

Following the discovery of these petroleum

reservoirs, a series of quite different scientific investigations
have been carried out to test the initial assumptions that
the oil and gas have entered the reservoir formations from
great depth. Those laboratory analyses are described here
briefly.

1.) Analysis and correlations of trace element

abundances in oil: The oil produced from all reservoirs and
depths have been analyzed for correlations of their trace
metallic elements. For example the ratios of Ni/V and of
either Methane or Nitrogen have been measured. The
abundances of the trace metals show a clear correlation
and have thereby established that the oil at all levels share
a common, deep source, characterized by diffusive
separation, regardless of the age, type or circumstance of
the particular reservoir rocks.

2.) Paleontology analyses of the oil, - and its

significance: The Paleontology analyses of the oil in the
shallower Permian and Upper and Lower Carboniferous
sandstone formations have demonstrated the presence of
spore-pollen and other microphytofossils of the Devonian
and Proterozoic ages, establishing thereby upward
migration from the deeper formations, which migration is
not necessarily correlated to the age of either. The
paleontology analyses of the oil from these wells has been
performed by laboratories in Lvov, Minsk and Moscow. The
proterozoic microphytofossils examined included the
following: Protoleiospheridium conglutinatum Tim.,
Zonoleiospheridium larum Med., Leiominuscula rugosa
Naum., Margominuscula rugosa Medw.,
Protoarchaeosacculina stava. Naum., Leiopsophosphaera
giganteus Schep., Asperatopsophosphaera magna Schep.,
Strictosphaeridium implexum Tim., Gloecapsomorpha
hebeja Tim., Turuchanica alara Rud., Pulvinomorpha
angulata Tim. The observations from all laboratories have
been that the proportion of proterozoic microphytofossils is
usually equal to 70%-75% of the total spore pollen
abundance in oil from every formation and reservoir,
irrespective of the reservoir rock, its depth or its age.

3.) Bacteriological analysis of the oil and the

examination for so-called “biological marker” molecules:
The oil produced from the reservoirs in the crystalline
basement rock of the Dnieper-Donets Basin has been
examined particularly closely for the presence of either
porphyrin molecules or “biological marker” molecules, the
presence of which used to be misconstrued as "evidence" of
a supposed biological origin for petroleum. None of the oil
contains any such molecules, even at the ppm level. There
is also research presently under progress which has
established the presence of deep, anaerobic, hydrocarbon
metabolizing microbes in the oil from the wells in the
uppermost petroliferous zones of the crystalline basement
rock in the Dnieper-Donets Basin.
4.) Measurement of elevated abundances of helium:
The petroleum from all producing reservoirs manifest
elevated abundance of helium. The natural gas and oil
from, for example, the Yulyovskoye field contain not less
than 180,000,000 m3 of helium. Helium is of abyssal origin
and can be transported significant distances in the Earth's
crust only by entrainment in another carrier fluid, typically
hydrocarbons or hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide or
nitrogen together, by which process it becomes
concentrated in the carrier fluid.

These results, taken either individually or together,

confirm the scientific conclusions that the oil and natural
gas found both in the Precambrian crystalline basement and
the sedimentary cover of the Northern Monoclinal Flank of
the Dnieper-Donets Basin are of deep, and abiotic, origin.

For this work, the present authors responsible

for the discovery of these 12 fields were awarded the
State Prize of Ukraine in the field of Science and
Technology in 1993.

Furthermore, the exploration drilling is still in

progress and continues to yield success. Today (15
February 1994), there are 20 commercial new oil and gas
fields under development. One of these new fields is the
Khukhrya field with reserves of 18 million metric tons of oil.
Another is the Yulyovskoye oil and gas field for which the
presently discovered petroleum reserves have been
calculated to be 27 million tons of oil equivalent.

published in: Krayushkin, V. A., T. I.

Tchebanenko, V. P. Klochko, Ye. S. Dvoryanin, J.
F. Kenney, (1994). Recent applications of the
modern theory of abiogenic hydrocarbon
origins: Drilling and development of oil & gas
fields in the Dneiper-Donets Basin. VIIth
International Symposium on the Observation of
the Continental Crust through Drilling, Santa Fe,
NM, DOSECC.