Hydrocarbon-bearing areas in the eastern part of the Ukrainian Black Sea

Abstract

The eastern part of the Ukrainian Black Sea consists of the Kerch Shelf with water depth less than 100 m that covers an area of 5500 km2. To the SE of the Crimean Peninsula, the much larger deepwater domain (about 40,000 km2) has a maximum water depth of about 2200 m (Figure 1). The main tectonic units of the deepwater domain are as follows: the easternmost part of the Western Black Sea Depression, the northwestern part of the Eastern Black Sea Depression, the South Crimean Cenozoic Orogen, the Tetyaev-Shatsky and Andrusov ridges, and the Sorokin Trough. All of these tectonic units were formed from the middle Mesozoic until the present day.