The East Siberian craton is bordered on the east by the Cis-Verkhoyansk foredeep, immediately to the east of which is the Verkhoyansk fold belt. The Lena River runs from south to north along the foredeep; Cretaceous sediments are at the surface there. The possibility for petroleum accumulations in the foredeep is indicated by the presence of thick deposits of Carboniferous-Permian and Triassic-Jurassic age. These deposits contain pelitic rocks enriched in sapropelic and humic organic matter. Reservoir rocks and clay seal are also present in the section. Absence of discoveries in the region is attributed to a paucity of geological and geochemical information and to the small volume of drilling. Seismic and gravity surveys have now demonstrated that the Verkhoyansk fold belt has been overthrust 50 to 100 km westward onto the Cretaceous and older sediments of the Cis-Verkhoyansk foredeep. Angles of inclination of the thrust planes range from 0 to 50-70 degrees. Thirty-three samples of black shale of Carboniferous-Early Permian age were collected from outcrops on the western flank of the Verkhoyansk Range over a distance of about 100 km. Content of organic carbon ranges from 1.21 to 4.34 percent. Luminescent-bituminological analysis gave low yields of bitumoids. Low bitumoid content was confirmed by other analyses. The distribution of normal alkanes, isoprenoids, and other organic compounds indicates that the bitumoids of these black shales were generated by a marine source. The relatively high content of organic carbon in these samples along with an extremely low content of chloroform-extract bitumen might be explained by the samples having been taken from outcrops. Further thermal analyses failed to disclose any traces of hydrocarbons. This indicates that in spite of high content of organic carbon, the kerogen in these rocks of the allochthonous terrane is so strongly metamorphosed that no traces of hydrocarbons remain. Consequently, the bitumoids in these rocks other than that of the black shales are entirely epigenetic derived from deeper sources. The presence of oil in the Lower-Middle Carboniferous rocks can be logically explained by vertical migration of hydrocarbons from kitchens in Permo-Mesozoic sediments buried beneath a thrust sheet. This explanation offers considerable prospects for petroleum discoveries in the overthrust belt - particularly for Jurassic rocks. (See Gordadze and others, 1994; digested in Petroleum Geology, vol. 29, no. 1/2, 1995, one map). Copyright 2000 James Clarke. You are encouraged to print out this News Letter and the forward it to others. Earlier News Letters are available at our website: http://geocities.com/internetgeology/