PETROLEUM GEOLOGY OF THE TETHYS SEA

The Tethys seaway was a great "Mediterranean" ocean that rolled along the southern part of Eurasia and included the sites of the present Alps and Himalayas .The Arabian Craton plausibily dipped toward the Tethyan trough, a big basin now occupied by the Arabian Gulf. The thick oil-bearing sediments of this basin were laid down under oscillating sea and land conditions. The known oilfields occur in the various belts of folding near the Arabian Gulf geosyncline in a series of broad gentle anticlines underlying vast areas of the continental shelves as well as land areas. The Middle East has more than 25 fields with reserves of one billion barrels or more each; there are about 55 in the world. Geology, technology, and a full payoff over the long-run world's supply. Saudi Aramco, almost the sole petroleum producer and exporter in the kingdom, has used seismic methods briskly to add new petroleum discoveries. Despite OPEC's control on production and price mechanism, the oil giants in the Middle East may face tough rivalry from the North African crude in the near future and from the Russian, South American, and Caspian producers for many years to come.