MAIN DIRECTIONS OF RESEARCH AND GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION WORK ON THE STUDY OF PEAT RESOURCES IN WESTERN SIBERIA

A. S. OLENIN

The West Siberian Lowland is the country’s largest peat region. More than 32 million hectares of peat deposits are concentrated here, with peat reserves of almost 95 billion tons, which amounts to 60% of the all-Union and about 40% of world reserves.

The present-day appearance of the bogged and peat-covered expanses of the lowland is an extremely complex natural landscape, difficult to access not only for development but also for study. At the same time, it is an enormous potential of fuel and energy resources, fertile lands, chemical raw materials, and highly valuable organic fertilizers. The potential value of the peat-raw-material resources of Western Siberia creates the possibility of using them not only on a large scale, but also in various directions: industrial-energy and agricultural.

Such comprehensive development of the peat massifs in Western Siberia is dictated by the general task of developing here gigantic productive forces. The present state of the peat-covered territories—their waterlogging and impassability—creates a considerable obstacle to the realization of this problem.

Therefore, it is entirely justified to pose the task of a more profound study of the paths toward the most rational development of the enormous peat expanses of the West Siberian Lowland. Solving this task will in many respects improve the conditions for the distribution of productive forces and the integrated development of this region of the country, which is of the utmost importance for the national economy (the creation of industrial and population centers, the construction of transport trunk lines and routes, oil and gas pipelines, and the organization of agricultural production).

Among the principal factors determining the possibility of developing the peat resources of Western Siberia, one should first of all include the favorable location of peat massifs in relation to the most promising oil-and-gas, timber-chemical, metallurgical, and other industrial complexes, as well as the technological characteristics of peat deposits and the qualitative diversity of peat raw material, which create the economic prerequisites for the comprehensive use of peat.

The West Siberian Lowland is the greatest intracontinental plain in the world, in whose landscape bogged and peat-covered watersheds predominate, with a predominance of

in the central part of the ridge–hollow and ridge–lake complexes.

The territory of Western Siberia is the largest world center of peat accumulation. Nowhere on the globe in the modern period are such bog- and peat-forming processes observed as those taking place in Western Siberia.

These processes have reached their greatest development in the central part of the lowland, where the concave character of the surface is combined with a moderately humid climate. Here are concentrated the largest peat deposits in terms of area and depth, among them the Vasyugan peat massif, with a total area of more than 5 million ha. The enormous accumulations of peat deposits here can apparently be explained by the distinctive geomorphological conditions and the character of occurrence of Quaternary deposits.

The decisive factor for the intensity of peat formation in this region should be considered the modern forms of relief, together with the influence of climatic characteristics.

The geomorphological and landscape features of the central part of the West Siberian Lowland make it possible, within the principal natural zones—the forest-tundra, forest, and forest-steppe—to distinguish a number of peat-bog subzones and peat districts that differ in the general character of the distribution of peat deposits, their typological features, and quality indicators. In the main, the boundaries of these subzones and districts coincide with the distribution of interfluves and watersheds (Table 1).

The peat deposits of Western Siberia are distinguished by great diversity both in the size of their area and in the types of deposits, and in the heat-engineering, chemical, and agrochemical properties of the peat; thus they are of considerable interest for comprehensive utilization. Along with large reserves of fuel peat, the largest resources of peat-bedding raw material (2.2 billion tons, or more than 40% of all-republic resources) and peat-insulating raw material (1.4 billion tons, or 80% of all-republic resources) are concentrated here.

Table 1

Qualitative characteristics of peat resources by natural zones and peat districts

These resources of slightly decomposed raised-bog fuscum peat are also of interest as raw material for the development of chemical production.

The overall possible scale of peat extraction from the identified peat deposits is estimated at almost 500 million tons per year, while the total potential fuel-and-energy resources of peat, converted into power capacity, amount to about 60 million kW.

Drainage and development of the large peat-covered territories of the West Siberian Lowland will be not only the first step toward transforming this region for the more rapid exploitation of its natural wealth, but will also create a substantial reserve for the development of the peat industry and agriculture.

The present technical level of peat production in our country and the high degree of mechanization of all technological processes, unmatched anywhere in the world, constitute a reliable basis for the large-scale industrial development of the peat resources of Western Siberia.

The volume of annual peat extraction in the USSR amounts to more than 60 million tons for fuel and about 180 million tons for fertilizer and other needs in agriculture. Already more than 60 electric power stations operate on peat fuel. The construction of a number of new large-capacity thermal power stations using peat is planned: of 600, 800, and 1200 thousand kW. The scale of peat extraction will undoubtedly increase in the future. The geography of peat extraction is also expanding considerably. Whereas at first the peat industry developed only in the central regions, subsequently it spread to the regions of the Northwest and the Urals and has now reached Western Siberia. Here, on the Tarman peat deposit, the country’s largest industrial peat enterprise is being created, with an annual peat extraction scale of about 3 million tons for the Tyumen electric power station, the first stage of which has already been put into operation.

Other large peat deposits of Western Siberia, located in close proximity to the Tarman deposit and under the same favorable climatic and hydrotechnical conditions, are planned for industrial-energy development in the near future. In

Table 2

(in rubles per ton of standard fuel)

In this respect peat here is fully competitive in comparison with long-distance imported coals, as is evident from Table 2.

In combination with fuel-and-energy production, depending on the nature of the peat deposits, heat-insulation, peat-chemical, and peat-bedding production may develop here.

The comprehensive industrial development of the peat massifs of Western Siberia will be one of the important ways of overcoming the existing obstacles to the development of its natural resources. At the same time, the most significant factor in draining and developing the enormous peat massifs of Western Siberia will be their transformation into fertile lands, which in the future will make it possible to regard the West Siberian Lowland as one of the reliable food bases of our country.

Already now, in Tyumen Oblast, 14 machine-reclamation stations have been established; they are carrying out drainage works at 33 sites with an area of more than 70 thousand hectares. By the forces of the machine-reclamation stations in Tomsk Oblast, the “Shegaro-Iksinskoye” peat deposit has been drained for the sowing of perennial grasses; drainage works are being carried out at the “Chaginskoye,” “Verkhnii Lug,” and other peat deposits. Peat fertilizers are being used at the “Takhtamyshevskii” and “Tomskii” state farms.

The Novosibirsk Agricultural Institute and the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute are studying the effectiveness of the granulated peat-mineral-bacterial fertilizers developed by them and are expanding work on extracting humic substances from peat for use as plant-growth stimulants.

The achievements already made by scientific institutions and the practice of state farms and suburban farms in Tomsk and Tyumen oblasts make it possible to take steps toward broader development of peat areas and the use of peat in the agriculture of Western Siberia. In this connection, especially promising is the drainage of the largest lowland peat massifs, located in the most favorable climatic zone, south of 60° north latitude. Here it is possible to bring into agricultural production and transform into fertile and steadily moist lands no less than 10 million hectares of areas that are now waterlogged and inaccessible for any use.

Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR V. B. Sochava, assessing the agricultural potential of the taiga zone of the West Siberian Lowland, likewise notes¹ that “its southern and central parts can be wholly developed over a considerable territory. South of 60° N latitude, as a result of reclamation, it is possible to achieve an effect no smaller than at the corresponding latitudes of the European part of the USSR.”

Thus, the development of peat-covered areas for agriculture is recognized as an important and real problem.

A preliminary assessment of the possibilities for draining the peat deposits of the lowland shows that, if the existing levels in the Ob and Irtysh rivers are maintained, drainage with slopes equal to 0.0005—0.001° will be ensured. However, even under these conditions, drainage of such large peat-covered and waterlogged areas presents a rather complex problem, which must be solved only in combination with the overall complex of development of the productive forces of the West Siberian Lowland.

Through the drainage and development of peat resources, the first and most important step will be taken toward the radical transformation of this region.

Reports of the Institute of Geography of Siberia and the Far East, Irkutsk, 1964, No. 5.
¹ V. B. Sochava. The Nature of the Taiga and Problems of Using Its Economic Potential.

Of particular importance is the solution of this problem for the largest centers of prospective industrial development of the West Siberian Lowland located in the peat-covered zone: Tyumen and Tobolsk (the wood-chemical industry); Kolpashevo (the iron-ore basin); Konda and Surgut (the oil industry); Berezovo (the gas industry); the Lower Ob and the Upper Konda (the timber-processing industry).

The construction of oil and gas pipelines and roads between industrial centers will also be carried out within peat-covered territories, and this increases the need for their drainage. Such structures will include, in particular: the Igrim—Serov gas pipeline; the Ivdel—Ob, Tavda—Sotnik, Tyumen—Tobolsk—Surgut railways, as well as a number of oil pipelines.

Assessing the significance of draining the peat-covered and swampy territories of the West Siberian Lowland, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR N. N. Nekrasov² writes that “new cities and industrial settlements, a considerable network of railway and motor transport will be built here. For the time being the question concerns the practical economic development of individual regions of the West Siberian Lowland. But already now the question of a scientifically substantiated plan for the local drainage of the territory of industrial development is arising with full urgency.”

Thus, the problem of draining peat massifs for the purpose of using them must be solved within the general complex of development of the territory of this region.

The question of preserving and improving the water regime of the taiga zone of the West Siberian Lowland is intersectoral in character and must concern all branches of economic activity in this territory.

The prospects for the comprehensive study and development of peat resources in the plan for the development of the entire national economy of Western Siberia must be built on the basis of preliminary work, carried out by geological organizations on peat, to identify, evaluate, and map the peat fund of Western Siberia.

The next stage should be the deployment, in 1966–1970, of broader comprehensive scientific-research work, as well as the substantiation of a general hypothesis and the development of design documentation for the local development of the peat resources of the West Siberian Lowland.

As priority work for the nearest period, provision should be made for:

a) the carrying out, during 1966–70, of peat-exploration and preliminary-design work on peat massifs currently designated as fuel bases for the construction of large thermal power stations;

b) the study of drainage conditions and promising directions for the industrial and agricultural development of the Vasyugan and other large peat massifs of the West Siberian Lowland;

c) the study of the possibilities for the comprehensive development of the peat massifs of the West Siberian Lowland for energy-chemical and chemical-metallurgical purposes, as well as the development of large peat areas as agricultural lands;

d) the development of technical-economic justifications for the industrial, agricultural, and forestry development of large peat areas.

For the most successful implementation of the work of the various organizations engaged in studying the peat resources of Western Siberia and the ways

² N. N. Nekrasov. “The Distribution of Productive Forces.” Kommunist, No. 3, 1963.

their development, they must be coordinated with the work of other institutions engaged in the problems of developing the productive forces of this largest region of the country (the development of the oil and gas industry, metallurgy, forestry, fisheries, and agriculture).

Such coordination will ensure regularity in the deployment of the work of various organizations, their interaction, and the most appropriate orientation of the priority measures they plan.