Oil and Gas Prospects of the Ukrainian Part of the Western Black Sea

Oxana Khriachtchevskaia and Sergiy Stovba
Naukanaftogaz, Kiev, Ukraine

Eight gas-condensate commercial fields have been discovered within the Odessa shelf (western part of the Ukrainian Black Sea) during last three decades. The success factor of drilling is 0.5. The productive horizons are located in Upper Cretaceous, Palaeocene, Eocene, Oligocene and Lower Miocene sequences. Present-day exploration activity is focused on inverted structural highs within shallow water area (<100 m). The potentional resources of the Ukrainian Black Sea are evaluated as much as 2300 million tons of equivalent fuel while some experts estimate that potentional resources may be much more. Last revision of offshore well data with modern technology have allowed to determinate additional prospect reservoirs. In addition to anticline traps, lithological traps are widely distributed within the shallow water. Among them traps that formed by pinching out of Paleocene-Eocene layers as well as valleys of Oligocene paleorivers. The deepwater area (up to 2000 meters) has not been studied well yet with seismic survey even. Nevertheless, the recent expert appraisal based on interpretation of new regional seismic data (that has been carried out by Naftogaz of Ukraine) demonstrates very high prospects for discoveries of huge fields in the area. Potential targets are Miocene-Pliocene submarine turbidite fans and Mesozoic buried hills. Gas chimneys are strong evidences for a likely HC generation system. Prospect reservoirs in water depths of 100 m to 2000 m have a potential to contain hundred million barrels of recoverable HC.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece