The Oil and Gas Habitats of the South Atlantic. N. R. Cameron, R. Bate, V. Clure & D. Smith (eds) . Geological Society, London, Special Publication 153. ISBN 1-86239-030-4 (HB), 1999, 474 pp. US$148/£89. Geological Society members US$65/£39.

Abstract

A quick review of my stockpile of journals revealed how poorly documented the petroleum geology of this region of the world is: I found, for instance, five African papers in ten years’ copies of the AAPG Bulletin . The editors of this book are, therefore, to be complimented on the efforts they have made to fill this yawning gap in the documentation of the world’s petroleum reserves. The editors set themselves two objectives, first to overview the petroleum geology of the region and second to demonstrate the contribution that universities and service companies can make to background work supporting South Atlantic exploration. In the case of the first objective, they have struggled – chiefly because of the well known reciprocal relationship that exists between prospectivity and willingness to publish. The contents page of the volume will prove disappointing to some as a result: there are no papers on Nigeria or Gabon, one on Angola and two on Brazil, whereas Namibia and the Falklands attract eight papers between them. And, unfortunately, we do not see a cross-section or seismic line across an oil field anywhere in the volume. These failings arise …