NEW APPROACH TO LOCAL GEOLOGICAL AND GEOCHEMICAL PREDICTION OF OIL AND GAS OCCURRENCE

Abstract

The main objective of modern techniques of oil and gas prospecting is to increase the efficiency and especially the reliability of predicting the oil and gas prospects of local uplifts or uplift zones. The current procedure of ranking tracts in a basin in terms of their prospects is based primarily on structural features. It is obvious that the method of predicting oil and gas occurrences in local tracts should include not only studies of the geology (bringing out structural traps), but also geochemical investigations, whose ultimate aim is to determine the amounts of hydrocarbons that are generated, emigrate, and accumulate during the geologic history of a sedimentary basin. The proposed method of geological and geochemical prediction of oil and gas in local areas involves historical-geological and geochemical analysis of the sedimentary basins, performed in a specific order. This method was tested in several geological targets and showed good agreement with predicted reserves of hydrocarbons.