INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGY FOR EXPLORING HYDROCARBON FIELDS ON THE BLACK SEA BOTTOM

According to data from 2016-2017, world oil and gas reserves consist of 1,650,585,140,000 barrels and 1,153,820 billion BOE, respectively. This would be sufficient for 47 and 52 years at current consumption levels, respectively. It means that the search for new industrial fields of hydrocarbons is still a high priority.

The diverse and extensive geological materials and geophysical data used in forecasting and prospecting for oil and gas within the Black Sea’s northwestern shelf are usually interpreted in a complex manner. This complexity, however, is often spontaneous and fragmentary, with no new theoretical concepts taken into account.

Our methodology is based on the theory of global fluidogenesis, which represents an alternative hypothesis to the organogenic-sedimentary formation of hydrocarbon deposits. The methodology includes applications of expert analysis and rank correlation of data to geological and forecasting research on hydrocarbons. To achieve this goal, two basic principles, rank and direction, are considered. The methodology was tested on the Pradniprovska geological structure, a promising location for oil and gas exploration in the shallow part of the inner northwestern shelf of the Black Sea. The structure was studied by geophysical, geochemical (hydrocarbon gases, liquid hydrocarbons), mineralogical (X-ray diffraction of clay minerals, thermobarogeochemistry of inclusions in minerals), and biological (foraminifera, nematodes, ostracods) methods, along with the drilling of a deep (2352 m) parametric well (Pradniprovska-2).

Each ranking narrows the search area and focuses on increasingly higher hydrocarbon probability. The results indicate that the proposed method of expert analysis with rank correlation under modern conditions using diverse geological materials that are not formalized into a single database, provides high reliability in the comprehensive interpretation of data. This procedure significantly increases the likelihood of success when selecting sites for drilling exploration wells in the quest for oil and gas within the shelf.