Tectonic Criteria of Oil and GAS Potential at the Transitional Part of the Susha-sea Along the Western Coast of the South Caspian Depression

Abstract

Abstract The southern part of the South Caspian oil and gas Basin (SCB) is one of the main oil and gas producing regions in the central part of Eurasian continent. The large number of offshore oil and gas fields is located here, therefore the basin considered as a promising direction for the further perspective zones survey. The basin is located between the uneven-aged mountain structures of the Lesser and Greater Caucasus in the west, the Great Balkhan and Kopet-Dag in the east, the Talish and Elbrus ridges in the south. In the north, it is limited by a sub-latitudinal regional deep fault, which fixes the northern slope of the complex Absheron-Balkhan zone of uplifts, which is part of the South Kura and Western Turkmenistan depressions. Among the structural elements of the second order, the South Absheron depression, the complex Abikh swell and the Javadkhan-Natevan zone in the west should be noted; Turkmen terrace, Ogurchinskaya step and Chikishlyar-Fersmanovskaya-Weber-Western zone in the east (Fig. 1). The central place in the structure of the basin is occupied by the South Caspian Mega Depression (SCMD), in the most submerged part of which - the pre Elbrus Basin - the basement lies at a depth of about 25 km, and the sedimentary stratum, including Mesozoic, Cenozoic and Quaternary formations, is largely represented by the Pliocene - post-Pliocene sediments, reaching a total thickness of 8–10 km and more in the troughs (Fig. 2, 3).