Abstract: Stratigraphic and Structural Development of the Gulf of Odessa, Northwest Black Sea: Implications for Petroleum Exploration

ROBINSON, ANDREW G., EDUARD KERUSOV

The Gulf of Odessa forms the northern rift and passive margin of the extensional Western Black Sea. The pre-rift comprises the Scythian Proterozoic to Triassic Platform in the north (which dips gently southward) and in the south, a Triassic to Early Jurassic back-arc basin which closed during the Middle Jurassic (Tavric-Kure Series). Both of these units were covered by a Late Jurassic carbonate platform prior to the Aptian-Albian doming and rifling that preceded the opening of the Western Black Sea (Cenomanian). During the Late Eocene to Oligocene, Aptian-Albian half-grabens suffered limited inversion related to closure of the Tethyan Ocean in Central Anatolia. The main play in the Gulf of Odessa has involved Lower Paleocene chalk in inversion-related anticlines formed during the Late Eocene to Oligocene. The chalks are not significantly fractured, and permeabilities are of the order of a few millidarcys. The source rock for the wet gas has not been positively identified but may be Paleozoic, possibly Devonian, or Albian. Extensional structures that formed prior to inversion may still contain the early oil charge from such a source. Adjacent to the deep Black Sea basin, there is an E-W trending extensional high (Kalamit Ridge) that extends into Romania and includes the Lebada oil field. The Lebada play - transgressional Albian sandstones draped over partly inverted extensional fault blocks and charged by a Tertiary (?Upper Eocene) source rock in the deep Black Sea Basin - extends into Ukrainian waters.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90942©1997 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria