3a Naukova St., 79053, Lviv, Ukraine

Phone: (0322) 63 2541; fax: (0322) 63 2209;
e-mail: igggk@ah.ipm.lviv.ua

The Institute was founded in 1951. It does research into theoretical and applied problems of petroleum and gas geology and geochemistry, studies geology of coal fields and coal formation, gives special attention to studying the geology and geochemistry of sulphur and potassium fields, to geotechnological problems of extracting useful combustible minerals and to geoecological problems. The Institute works in the following basic research areas:

– Theory of petroleum and gas formation, studying patterns of the formation and locality of oil and gas fields in the Earth’s crust;

– Problems of formation and locality of methane-coal fields;

– Geotechnological problems of extracting fuel-and-power raw materials from methane-coal fields and oil deposits;

– Geoecology and geochemistry of the Carpathian region.

Patterns of coking-coal occurrence in coal-bearing formations of Donbas were established and patterns of changes in quality and distribution of coal brands on the territory of the Lviv-Volyn coal field determined.

A scheme of stratigraphy of Paleogene, Neogene formations and Cretaceous deposits of the Ukrainian Carpathians, Fore-Carpathian and Trans-Carpathian depressions was produced. A number of tectonic and geological maps of the Carpathian-Balkan mountain structure and the Ukrainian Carpathians were published.

The Institute started new lines of geophysical research into sedimentary strata of oil-and-gas-bearing provinces, formulated basic principles of geophysics of field interaction, which is a new area in the studies of geological environment.

A new line of petroleum geology – that of geothermodynamics was founded. A new phenomenon of unlimited oil dissolving in water was discovered. Scientific fundamentals for gasification of solid fuels were developed.

At present, three scientific schools work at the Institute – those of:

– geodynamics of oil-and-gas-bearing provinces;

– geological paleooceanography of ancient continental edges in relation to useful minerals;

– development of methods for studying individual inclusions in mineral sedimentary rocks.

The Institute proposes for joint research and commercialization:

– to publish Instructions for evaluating the resources of coal-bed methane in Ukraine in the framework of the ‘State program of prospecting, mining and using of coal-bed methane of Ukraine’ (1994-2005);

– to develop the ‘Oil yield’ State program;

– to implement a pilot project of underground gasification of substandard coal seams within the bounds of a field in the Lviv-Volyn basin of Ukraine;

– to commercialize a technology of biogas extraction from technogenous massifs.