A Soviet geologist said scientists need to coordinate data about onshore and offshore oil deposits to help identify global formations that would indicate other potential discoveries of oil and gas reserves. Vladmir Vladiminovich Semenovich the head of petroleum geology at Moscow State University told delegates at the World Petroleum Congress that exploration efficiency could also be improved through new and more sophisticated technology. We should emphasize that when having the data about petroleum distribution onshore and offshore it is possible to clarify the idea of global regularities in oil and gas prospects Semenovich said. However much work should be done to coordinate data concerning the structure and oil and gas prospects in adjoining onshore and offshore basins. Sharing the information could help geologists better predict regional trends and underground formations that indicate the presence of oil or gas he said. Semenovich also said that existing estimates of the potential oil and natural gas resources of the world may need to be revised upward as oil companies continue to examine unexplored regions. The world which has already produced 476 billion barrels of oil and gas has a current total of about 733 billion barrels in proved reserves. Undiscovered resources are estimated at about 1.4 trillion barrels or about half of the total ultimate reserves Semenovich said. There are a lot of unstudied regions all over the world and as far as the already known basins one continues to find additional reserves he said noting that Antarctica has been virtually ignored. The existing estimate of potential resources of the world may need to be enlarged. To find deeper and more expensive reserves scientists will need to use 3-D mapping of underground formations and laser spectrometry to measure bitumen in soils and plants among other techniques he said. He estimated that continental slopes contain about 10 to 13 pct of all offshore reserves. Semenovich also said that virtually all of the total oil and gas resources now estimated to exist in the world would be discovered and placed in production during the next 50 years. After his speech Semenovich tolds that Soviet oil production was increasing. The difficulties of 1985 have been overcome and were now back to normal production he said. The Soviet Union the worlds largest producer of oil had experienced drilling and technical problems that cut total liquids production from 12.45 mln barrels a day in 1984 to 12.1 mln barrels a day in 1985. Last year the Soviets produced an estimated 12.3 mln barrels. When asked about the recent reopening and testing of a coal gasification project in Soviet Central Asia Semenovich said the project was important because of the lack of oil reserves in the region. Semenovich declined to identify at what level of world oil prices the coal gasification process would become economic again. Its too expensive for the time being Semenovich said. Theoretical development is underway and tests are being run. For the moment coal gasification is a very small part of the energy industry he said.
SOVIET SAYS DATA SHARING WILL HELP FIND OIL