Recent Discoveries and Future Exploration in the Polish Basin: Perfecting the Search by Geological Modeling

Pawel H. Karnkowski
Institute of Geology, Warsaw, Poland

The Polish Basin is a part of great sedimentary basin in Europe (about 1500 km long and 350 km wide), extending from England through Holland, Germany and Denmark up to Poland. It was developed during the Permian time, whole Mesozoic up to the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary when the general basin inversion occurred. The Rotliegend series (Lower Permian) contain gas fields and the Zechstein carbonates (Upper Permian) - both gas and oil deposits. Several tens gas fields have been hitherto discovered within the Rotliegend series of the Polish Basin. They are located in the uppermost part of sandy Rotliegend sediments and are sealed by Zechstein evaporates. Occurrence of significant part of Rotliegend series at large depth limits more intensive exploration of this unit. But such situation does not indispose the foreign investors for further prospecting and recently most of the Polish Rotliegend Basin area is subdivided into concessionary plots; they are managed both by Polish and foreign investments. A fundamental question of future exploration works is the occurrence of „oil window”. The reconstruction of the thermal history of Polish Basin by geological modeling was obtained from computer simulation. Using the geochemical cross-sections, extending on the Rotliegend top/Zechstein bottom surface, the relations between location of gas or oil plays in the Zechstein deposits and thermal history of individual places are understandable. Geological modeling used for prediction of favorable zones for exploration in the Polish Basin is the key for future successes.