THE DISTRIBUTION OF OIL‐AND GASFIELDS IN RELATION TO SATELLITE IMAGE INTERPRETATION: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE POLISH EAST CARPATHIANS AND THE ADJACENT FOREDEEP

Abstract

The Polish East Carpathians consist of a series of nappes which have been thrust northwards onto the Miocene sedimentary fill of the Carpathian Foredeep, a foreland basin located between the Meta‐Carpathian Swell to the north and the Carpathian orogen to the south. A total of 151 oil‐ and gasfields are present in the Polish Carpathians and the adjacent foredeep.In the Carpathians, all the oilfields are related to structural traps such as anticlinal folds which are frequently cut by faults, thrusts and décollement planes. In the Carpathian Foredeep, oil and gas accumulations are located both within the Neogene interval and in the pre‐Neogene basement. The most productive fields occur on the northern and southern margins of the Carpathian Foredeep; these locations received sandy detritus from the developing orogen to the south, and from the Meta‐Carpathian ridge to the north.In this paper, we compare the distribution of oil‐ and gasfields in the Polish Carpathians and the foreland basin to that of structural lineaments identified on Landsat imagery. Within the Carpathians, the lineaments are connected with fold axes, nappes, thrust slices and faults. In the Carpathian foredeep, by contrast, the lineaments must also be associated with faults, but no faults are indicated on surface geological maps. The simplest way to distinguish the faults is to interpret their presence in the pre‐Tertiary basement, and to project them into the Miocene cover.A satellite image of the study area was analysed independently by 40 different researchers, and the resulting interpretations were collated. With reference to this summary interpretation, we have attempted to analyse the spatial relationship between major lineaments and the distribution of oil‐ and gasfields in the study area.