Publications

The Kamchatka Back-arc Basin formed in a complex tectonic setting behind the subducting Pacific plate beneath the Kurile Trench and the Aleutian Trench, at the point where these two major subduction zones converge. A thick Early Tertiary fluvial sandstone sequence forms the most important reservoir in the basin. Thick marine shales were deposited in the middle and late Tertiary, forming an effective seal overlying this sandstone. In the central onshore portion of the Kamchatka Back-arc Basin, the Kolpakovsky area, four gas-condensate fields were discovered in the late 1980's. Established recoverable gas reserves in these fields are 19.3 billion cubic meters. Beneath the normally pressured gas reservoir, very high pressures were encountered at a depth of 4000 meters.The structure and stratigraphy are similar in many respects to the Sumatra Back-arc Basin. Both regions have been affected by an early extensional phase of tectonics which controlled sedimentation of important clastic reservoirs. In both regions this extensional regime was followed by late Tertiary compression related to a major strike slip-faulting resulting in large anticlinal traps.