Oil and Gas Institute of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan¹ ; Sergo Ordzhonikidze Russian State University for Geological Prospecting, Moscow, Russia²

V. Yu. Kerimov, Chief Researcher¹, Head of Department², Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor, vagif.kerimov@mail.ru

National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan

I. S. Guliev, Vice-President, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan

Oil and Gas Institute of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan

N. P. Yusubov, Head of Department, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences

Efficiency of oil and gas forecasting and appraisal on land and in water areas in many ways depends on the knowledge of geological formation mechanisms of a region. The first stage of forecasting and prospect evaluation of oil and gas content of the subsoil is oil-and-gas geology zoning. It represents division of an area or a water space into oil- and gas-bearing objects of various scale and collateral subordination on the basis of the analysis of geological data on the structure, stratigraphy and composition of the subsoil strata in a region of interest, and on its formation and oil-and-gas geology factors. The hydrocarbon systems, alongside oil source rocks, are enclosing rocks, traps, reservoirs, overburden etc., and the hydrocarbon processes are generation, migration and accumulation. Inextricable connection between such constituents of such hydrocarbon systems as an oil and gas source and zones of its migration and accumulation is an essential condition of the correctness of oil-and-gas geology zoning and oil/gas prediction. Using the listed geological criteria, the authors identified highly promising and promising oil/gas areas of categories I, II and III, potential and possible oil/gas areas (water spaces), and areas with unclear oil/gas prospects inside Azerbaijan. The structural geology and tectonics of the Caspian Sea–Kura oil and gas province are analyzed as a framework for the zoning of the area. The novelty of the proposed approach is the introduction of a ‘basin’ characteristics. In the land area and in the water space of Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea–Kura oil and gas province is identified as a mega basin. The next hierarchical scale represents three oil/gas fields: Middle Kura, Southern Caspian and Middle Caspian basins. Using the analytical and numerical modeling results, the hydrocarbon generation-and-accumulation systems are identified, and three unconventional (shale) hydrocarbon systems are detected.

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