Kopystianskyi Roman Stepanovych

Roman Stepanovych Kopystiansky (; 24 November 1925 – 8 September 2013) was a Ukrainian petroleum geologist who studied the Carpathian oil and gas province. His research focused on rock fracturing, tectonophysics, geomechanics and the reservoir properties of oil- and gas-bearing formations. He held the degree of Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences.

Early life and education

Kopystianskyi was born on 24 November 1925 in the village of Vilshany near Przemyśl, Poland, into the family of a priest who served as the parish priest of the local church. He completed primary school in his native village and attended secondary school in Przemyśl. During the Second World War, he continued his education in Drohobych.

Scientific career

Kopystianskyi's research concerned methods of improving the exploration and prospecting of hydrocarbon deposits, the geological and structural-tectonic development of the Carpathian region, rock fracturing and the processes involved in the formation of oil and gas fields.

His investigations in the Carpathian Foredeep established that fracture orientation was controlled not only by the direction of tectonic stress but also by the lithological composition of the rocks. His data demonstrated different characteristic fracture orientations in sandstones, mudstones and marls, as well as a relationship between fracture spacing and bed thickness.

A specialist monograph on carbonate oil and gas reservoirs included Kopystianskyi's 1978 book among the principal works presenting methodological and theoretical research on the distribution of carbonate reservoirs.

Kopystianskyi's findings continued to be reproduced in later university teaching literature. A 2009 petroleum-lithology textbook included his data on the relationship between fracture spacing and the thickness of sandstone and siltstone beds in the Carpathian flysch formations.

Later research also credited his tectonophysical analysis with identifying zones of enhanced reservoir properties caused by rock failure and irreversible volumetric deformation.

Selected works

Books and monographs

Копистянський, Р. С. Значення тріщинуватості порід у формуванні нафтових родовищ Радянських Карпат [The significance of rock fracturing in the formation of oil fields in the Soviet Carpathians]. Kyiv: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1959. 74 pp.

Копистянський, Р. С. Проблема тріщинуватості порід у нафтовій геології [The problem of rock fracturing in petroleum geology]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1968. 158 pp.

Gurzhii, D. V.; Gabinet, M. P.; Kiselyov, A. E.; Kopystianskyi, R. S.; et al. Литология и породы-коллекторы на больших глубинах в нефтегазоносных провинциях Украины [Lithology and reservoir rocks at great depths in the petroleum provinces of Ukraine]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1983. 184 pp.

Articles and chapters

Копыстянский, Р. С. “Вопросы методики исследования и классификации трещин в нефтяной геологии” [Methodological issues in the study and classification of fractures in petroleum geology]. In: Труды Всесоюзного совещания по трещинным коллекторам нефти и газа [Proceedings of the All-Union Conference on Fractured Oil and Gas Reservoirs]. Leningrad: Gostoptekhizdat, 1961.

Копыстянский, Р. С. “Проницаемость соленосных пород в связи с нефтегазоносностью” [Permeability of salt-bearing rocks in relation to petroleum potential]. In: Условия образования и особенности нефтегазоносности солянокупольных структур [Formation conditions and petroleum characteristics of salt-dome structures]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1966, issue 1, pp. 284–291.

Копыстянский, Р. С. “Изменение трещиноватости горных пород с глубиной и её влияние на коллекторские свойства пород” [Changes in rock fracturing with depth and their influence on reservoir properties]. In: Изучение коллекторов нефти и газа, залегающих на большой глубине [Study of deeply buried oil and gas reservoirs]. Moscow: Nedra, 1977, issues 123–124, pp. 45–47.

Копыстянский, Р. С. “Влияние геологических факторов на неоднородность пород-коллекторов на больших глубинах” [The influence of geological factors on the heterogeneity of reservoir rocks at great depths]. In: Коллекторские свойства пород на больших глубинах [Reservoir properties of rocks at great depths]. Moscow: Nauka, 1985, pp. 53–59.

Personal life

Kopystianskyi was married to Nonna Khomivna Kopystianska (1924–2013), a literary scholar, Doctor of Philological Sciences and professor at the University of Lviv. Their son, Ihor Kopystianskyi, became a contemporary artist.

Death and burial

Kopystianskyi died in Lviv on 8 September 2013. He was buried in the Mokhnatskyi–Kopystianskyi family tomb in field No. 70 of Lychakiv Cemetery.