Offshore Oil and Gas in Different Basins and Countries of the World

Nikolay Zapivalov
Institute of Petroleum Geology and geophisics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Rising requirements of hydrocarbons in different countries of the world make conditions for intensive exploration in water areas.

The basic part of world sea reserves of oil and gas is concentrated at the Near and Middle East in huge fields of Persian gulf (66 % of oil and 64,7 % of gas). Further follow - Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, then Africa (mainly Gulf of Guinea), South and South-East Asia and the Western Europe (Northern and Norwegian seas).
Vast resources on the Arctic shelf of Russia are poorly developing.The geography of sea production is a little bit other. The West-European region has become much more intense (26 %), on the second place - Latin America (21 %), on the third - Near and Middle East (19 %). The part of Africa has considerably grown - due to the countries of gulf of Guinea (13 %), and also South and South-East Asia (9 %). North America (USA) gives only 7,5 % of world production of sea oil. Now in development there are almost 1500 sea oil fields. Among them are a lot of the largest and the giants. About 30 billions tons of oil and 15 trillions m³ of gas have been already extracted in water areas of the world.

The Bombay shelf and water areas of East shore are of very importance for India.

Prospects of growing oil-and-gas production in water areas of Russia are connected practically, while with the North Sakhalin shelf. The explored reserves here are 400 millions tons of oil and 1000 billions m3 of gas, the perspectives and probable reserves are estimated in 1,9 billions tons of oil and 4,3 trillions m³ of gas. There will be a powerful oil and gas complex with annual production levels of oil on 50 - 70 millions tons and gas on 100-125 billions m³.
Greater hopes are assigned on offshore gas-hydrates.India and Russia actively deal with gas-hydrates problems. It has been created joint "Center" on their researching and technological aspects.

Presentation GEO India Expo XXI, Noida, New Delhi, India 2008©AAPG Search and Discovery