ASGP (2011), vol. 81: 425–441

ORIGIN OF NATURAL GASES IN THE AUTOCHTHONOUS MIOCENE STRATA OF THE UKRAINIAN CARPATHIAN FOREDEEP AND ITS MESOZOIC BASEMENT

Maciej J. KOTARBA(1) & Yuriy V. KOLTUN(2)

1) AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland, e-mail: kotarba at agh.edu.pl
2) National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Combustible Minerals, 3a Naukova Street, 79060 Lviv, Ukraine

Kotarba, M. J. & Koltun, Y. V., 2011. Origin of natural gases in the autochthonous Miocene strata of the Ukrainian Carpathian Foredeep and its Mesozoic basement. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 81: 425–441.

Abstract: Methane concentrations in natural gases accumulated in the Lower and Upper Badenian and Lower Sarmatian reservoirs of the Bilche-Volytsia Unit in the western part of the Ukrainian Carpathian Foredeep usually exceed 96 vol%. Methane was generated by microbial reduction of carbon dioxide in the marine environment. Microbial methane and ethane were produced mainly during sedimentation of Miocene clays and muds. It is possible that this microbial process continues today. Higher light hydrocarbons (ethane in part, and mainly propane, butanes and pentanes) were generated during the diagenesis and the initial stage of the low-temperature, thermogenic processes from Type III and III/II kerogen deposited in Miocene strata and/or Middle and Upper Jurassic basement rocks. Limited variations in the values of geochemical hydrocarbon indices and stable isotope ratios of methane, ethane and propane with the depth indicate similar gas generation conditions within the whole Miocene succession. The microbial gases (methane and partly ethane) generated during microbial processes within the Miocene strata later migrated to the Upper Jurassic and the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) reservoirs of the Mesozoic basement, and to the bottommost Lower Badenian reservoirs of the analysed Letnia, Orkhovychi, Rudky and Vereshchytsia fields. The low hydrogen concentrations within the Miocene strata as well as within the Upper Jurassic and the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) reservoirs of the Mesozoic basement, and within the bottommost Lower Badenian reservoirs are also related to microbial processes. Carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which are common minor constituents, were generated by both microbial and low-temperature thermogenic processes. Moreover, CO2 also underwent secondary processes, mainly dissolution in water, during migration. At least part of the nitrogen accumulated in the Rudky field, which is remarkably high in N2 (96.9 vol%), is probably of atmospheric origin and was introduced to the reservoir by secondary recovery methods.