Summary The Arctic land areas of the West Siberian mega-province are the main strategic region for maintaining the level of natural gas production in Russia. The initial total resources of the region are estimated at 103.9 billion tons of oil equivalent, with a significant predominance of gas resources – 87.2 %. The implementation of the technology for the preparation and transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the region has created prerequisites for the conditional division of reserves and resources of gas and gas condensate fields into two zones. The pipeline transport zone is defined by the existing and under construction gas pipeline systems and includes the fields of the Bovanenkovo group, southern Yamal, the Gulf of Ob and the Gulf of Taz. The LNG zone is defined with the plans of NOVATEK to build plants for the production of liquefied natural gas on the basis of the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field and the fields of the Gydan Peninsula. In order to organize the rational development of the Arctic while minimizing the impact on its ecosystem, it is necessary to develop a Strategy for the development of Arctic territories until 2035 and a Concept (Doctrine) for the development of the Arctic until 2075.

We have analyzed the predictions of the petroleum potential of West Siberia made by Academician I.M. Gubkin in his public reports and scientific works. We outline the strategy of oil exploration in the area east of the Urals, set up in the early postwar period, and the current state of research into the petroleum potential of the province. Special attention is focused on Jurassic deposits, which were regarded by I.M. Gubkin as oil-promising. At present, the largest volumes of predicted oil and gas resources of the province are concentrated in Jurassic and Neocomian plays.

The current geological and geophysical exploration maturity and the structure of resource base have been presented for the West Siberian Basin. The patterns of oil and gas content distribution, both in areal extent and vertical, have been considered throughout the entire cover and its constituent oil-gas plays. Structural constructions for four major stratigraphic levels have been analyzed: the bottom of the Mesozoic–Cenozoic cover, the Jurassic and Lower Aptian top, and the bottom of Turonian deposits. The distribution patterns of oil and gas accumulations in each oil-gas play are controlled by a specific combination of parameters such as the distribution of reservoirs and seals, the presence of oil-and-gas source rocks, the level of organic matter maturity, facies and tectonic conditions, thermobaric and hydrogeochemical subsoil environments, etc.