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Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28
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Original research paper

Giant discoveries of oil and gas fields in global deepwaters in the past 40
years and the prospect of exploration*
Gongcheng Zhang a,*, Hongjun Qu b, Guojun Chen c, Chong Zhao b, Fenglian Zhang b,
Haizhang Yang a, Zhao Zhao a, Ming Ma c
a
CNOOC Research Institute Company Limited, Beijing, 100027, China
b
Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
c
Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources, Gansu Province/Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Lanzhou, 730000, China
Received 20 June 2018; revised 10 December 2018
Available online 21 March 2019

Abstract

Deepwater exploration has been developed for more than 40 years since 1975; generally, its exploration history can be divided into the
beginning stage (1975e1984), the early stage (1985e1995) and the rapid development stage (1996-now). Currently, deepwater areas have
become the hotspot of global oil and gas exploration, and they are also one of the most important fields of oil and gas increase in reserves and
production all over the world. In 40 years, global deepwater oil and gas discoveries are mainly distributed along five deepwater basin groups
which are characterized by “three vertical and two horizontal” groups: (1) In deepwater basins of the Atlantic Ocean, giant discoveries of oil are
mainly concentrated in Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico, and significant discoveries of natural gas are mainly on the west coast of
Norway in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean; (2) In deepwater basins of the East African continental margin, a group of giant gas fields has
been found in the Rovuma Basin and Tanzania Basin; (3) In deepwater basins of the West Pacific Ocean, giant discoveries of oil and gas are
mainly concentrated in the South China Sea and Southeast Asian waters; (4) The deepwater basins of the Neo-Tethys Region are rich in gas, and
the most important gas discoveries are mainly distributed in the northwest shelf of Australia and the eastern Mediterranean; and (5) In deepwater
basins around the Arctic Pole, major discoveries of oil and gas have been only found in deepwater areas of the Barents sea. Global deepwater oil
resources are mainly concentrated in the middle and south sections of the Atlantic Ocean. Deepwater gas resources are relatively widely spread
and mainly distributed in the northern part of Atlantic Ocean deepwater basins, the deepwater basins of East Africa, the deepwater basins of the
Neo-Tethys region and the deepwater basins around the Arctic Pole. There will be six domains for future oil-gas exploration of global deepwater
basins which are characterized by “two old and four new” domains; specifically, “two old” domains referring to the Atlantic offshore deepwater
basins and offshore deepwater basins of the Neo-Tethys structural domain, where the exploration degree is relatively high, and the potential is
still great. While the “four new” domains stand for pre-salt and ultra deepwater basin formations, offshore deepwater basins surrounding the
North Pole area and West Pacific offshore deepwater basins and the new fields will be the main fields of deepwater oil and gas exploration in the
future.
Copyright © 2019, Lanzhou Literature and Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences AND Langfang Branch of Research Institute of
Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Deepwater; Giant discoveries of oil and gas; Brazil; West Africa; Gulf of Mexico; East Africa; Northwest shelf of Australia; Eastern mediterranean;
New field

*
This is English translational work of an article originally published in Natural Gas Geoscience (in Chinese).The original article can be found at: 10.11764/j.
issn.1672-1926.2017.08.008.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhanggch@cnooc.com.cn (G. Zhang).
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial office of Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnggs.2019.03.002
2468-256X/Copyright © 2019, Lanzhou Literature and Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences AND Langfang Branch of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Petro-
China. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28
1. Introduction
Globally, fields with oil and gas explorations can be clas-
sified into three categories: on-land, shallow-water and deep-
water areas, which have different starting and ending times till
present. Over 150 years ago, in 1859, E. L. Drake of the
United States drilled the world's first oil well in Pennsylvania
by using modern technologies [1]. The United States and
former USSR encountered industrial oil flows in offshore
Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico and South Caspian Sea in
1947 and 1949, respectively. These discoveries ushered in a
new era with offshore oil explorations for over 60 years up to
the present [1]. Globally, deepwater oil and gas exploration
operations started in the 1970s. Over 40 years ago, the world's
first deepwater oil field was discovered in 1975 [1,2]. The so-
call deepwater is, in fact, a dynamic concept, which is
constantly changing with progresses in science and technol-
ogy. The concept can be defined by local technical levels,
exploration prospects, economic efficiencies, governmental
policies, geographic and other conditions. Consequently, the
definitions for deepwater may vary across countries during
different time periods. Before 1998, waters with depths of
200 m were universally considered deep waters. For some time
after 1998, deep waters were defined to be those with depths of
no less than 300 m. Currently, 500 m is mostly considered as
the threshold for “deep waters”. At the same time, those with
depths over 1500 m are considered as ultra-deep waters. In
summary, deep waters are defined differently across countries:
300 m in China and Brazil, 305 m in the Gulf of Mexico of the
United States, 400 m in French waters, and 500 m in the Gulf
of Mexico, Mexico, Australia and the UK [3].
In the 21st Century, over half of major oil and gas dis-
coveries were made in deepwater areas. It is especially true in
the past few years, during which deepwater areas played a
vital role in major discoveries around the world. From 2012 to
2014, over 70% of top 10 annual oil and gas discoveries were
made in deepwater areas. Currently, deepwater, deep-
formation and unconventional oil and gas are the top three
most important fields for hydrocarbon exploration and devel-
opment in the world. This paper summarized progresses in
exploration of deepwater basins around the world from pro-
spective distributions of deepwater basins and key deepwater
oil fields, history of deepwater oil and gas exploration, and
major discoveries in key basins. In addition, exploration
prospects have been reviewed to provide necessary guidance
for relevant research and deepwater oil and gas exploration
operations in China.
2. Distribution of deepwater basins/oil fields around the
world
2.1. Distribution of deepwater basins
Globally, deepwater basins are distributed across five re-
gions: Atlantic Rim, East Africa continental margin seas, West
Pacific, Arctic Circle and Neo-Tethys. The first three regions
are approximately in the north-south direction, whereas the
other two are in the east-west direction. Generally speaking,
these basins present a pattern characterized by “three verticals
and two horizontals” (Fig. 1) [3,4].
Structurally, the Atlantic deepwater basins and East Africa
continental margin basins are typical passive continental
margin basins on a stretched background. The West Pacific
deepwater basins refer to those formed in a regional stretched
environment on a background of Pacific Plate subduction to-
wards the Eurasian Plate. The Neo-Tethys deepwater basins
develop among the African Plate, Eurasian Plate and Austra-
lian Plate, predominantly on passive continental margin or
subduction continental margin backgrounds. The Arctic Circle
deepwater basins are distributed mostly on stretched
background.
2.2. Distribution of deepwater oil fields
The existing deepwater oil fields in the world are mostly
distributed in Atlantic deepwater basins of Brazil, Gulf of
Mexico and West Africa deepwater areas (Fig. 1, Table 1). The
existing deepwater gas fields are distributed in the Barents
Sea, East Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, Northwest shelf of
Australia and other deepwater areas (Fig. 1, Table 2).
3. History of deepwater exploration operations in the
world
Globally, deepwater oil and gas exploration operations
started in the 1970s. Currently, development of deepwater oil
and gas is the key growth driver and innovation frontier for the
world's petroleum industry. The history of hydrocarbon ex-
plorations in deepwater areas in the world can be classified
into three stages.
3.1. Beginning stage (1975e1984)
From 1975 to 1984, exploration activities were relatively
rare in deepwater areas with approximately 10 exploration
wells drilled annually in deep waters around the world. In
1975, a breakthrough was made in deepwater exploration by
finding the world's first deepwater oil field, the Cognac Oil
Field, in the Mississippi Canyon at the depth of approximately
313 m. During the period, the majority of deepwater oil and
gas exploration discoveries in the world were concentrated in
the Gulf of Mexico. Later, exploration operations in the
Northwest Shelf of Australia progressed to deepwater areas
with several major deepwater reservoirs discovered.
3.2. Early stage (1985e1995)
Since 1985, success rates of global deepwater exploration
have been enhanced dramatically, and the exploration activ-
ities increased as well. From 1985 to 1995, the number of
exploration wells drilled in deepwater areas increased to
30e78, or approximately 60 on average per year. During this
stage, active exploration operations were implemented in
deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico with continuous
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 3

Fig. 1. Distribution of the main global deepwater basins (according to Refs. [3,4]).

Table 1
Reserves of the world's top 20 deepwater oil fields.
S/N Oilfield Year of discovery Country Basin Water depth/m Recoverable reserves/(
106t) Refs.
1 Libra 2010 Brazil Santos >2000 1187e1910 [5]
2 Lula 2006 Brazil Santos 2126 974 [6]
3 Franco 2010 Brazil Santos >2000 917 [6]
4 Julia 2007 USA Gulf of Mexico 2160 819 [7]
5 Mad dog 1988 USA Gulf of Mexico 1342 546 [7]
6 Roncador 1996 Brazil Campos 1900 433 [8]
7 Marlim Sul 1987 Brazil Campos 1912 424 [8]
8 Marlim 1985 Brazil Campos 853 393 [8]
9 Iara 2008 Brazil Santos 2230 322 [6]
10 Jupiter 2008 Brazil Santos 2187 304 [6]
11 Sapinhoa 2008 Brazil Santos 2153 286 [6]
12 Jubarte 2001 Brazil Campos 1245 288 [8]
13 Stones 2005 USA Gulf of Mexico 2896 >273 [7]
14 Kizomba 1997 Angola Lower Congo 1349 273 [9]
15 Cernambi 2009 Brazil Santos Deepwater 266 [6]
16 6507/7/2 Heidrun 1985 Norway Norway Sea 351 206 [10]
17 Carcara 2012 Brazil Santos Deepwater 191 [11]
18 Carioca 2007 Brazil Santos Deepwater 151 [6]
19 Albacora 1984 Brazil Campos 1000 138 [8]
20 Crazy Horse 1999 USA Gulf of Mexico 1800 136 [12]
Note: To make comparisons easier, this paper uniformly expresses oil reserves in tons: 1t ¼ 7. 33 barrels, 1 m3 ¼ 6.29 barrels. Natural gas reserves are expressed in
cubic meters or ton oil equivalent: 1cf ¼ 0. 0283 m3, 1255 m3 ¼ 1toe; the same below.

discoveries of major oil/gas fields. Moreover, exploration op-
erations in Brazil entered deepwater areas with discoveries of
multiple deepwater reservoirs in post-salt deepwater turbidite
sandstones of the Campos Basin. In addition, Russia discov-
ered several huge natural gas fields during exploration of
deepwater areas of the Barents Sea around the North Pole.
3.3. Rapid development stage (1996 to present)
Since 1996, the world has entered a stage with active
deepwater oil and gas exploration operations. From 1996 to
2000, the number of exploration wells in deepwater areas
increased rapidly. In 2000, it was 250; in 2001e2004, it was
approximately 260 per year; in 2004e2008, it decreased
slightly to about 220 every year. At the same time, key dis-
coveries were also made in offshore regions with water depths
over 1500 m (ultra-deep water). Since the beginning of the
21st Century, half of key offshore discoveries were made in
deepwater areas. It is especially true in the past few years with
deepwater areas dominating key oil/gas discoveries in the
world. For example, all of the world's top 10 oil and gas dis-
coveries in 2012 were distributed in deepwater areas [11]; in
4 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Table 2
Reserves of the world's top 20 deepwater gas fields.
S/N Gasfield Year of discovery Country Basin Water depth/m Recoverable reserves/(
109m3) Refs.
1 Shtokmanovskoye 1988 Russia Barents Sea 330 3200.0 [13,14]
2 Mamba 2012 Mozambique Rovuma 1690 1557.6 [15]
3 Ludlovskoye 1990 Russia Barents Sea 300 1500.0 [16,17]
4 Prosperidade 2010 Mozambique Rovuma 1548 731.1 [15]
5 Zohr 2015 Egypt Nile Delta >2000 628.755 [18]
6 Leviathan 2010 Israel Levant 1634 602.4 [18]
7 Jansz 2000 Australia North Carnarvon 1321 566.34 [19]
8 Golfinho 2012 Mozambique Rovuma 1027 559.7 [15]
9 Greater Tortue Complex 2016 Senegal Senegal 2700 481.389 [20]
10 6506/12-1 1996 Norway Norway Sea 303 405.77 [10]
Smorbukk
11 Torosa 1971 Australia Browse 500 343.485 [21]
12 6305/5-1 1997 Norway Norway Sea 857 315.1 [10]
Ormen Lange
13 Coral 2012 Mozambique Rovuma 2261 305.4 [15]
14 Tamar 2009 Israel Levant 1676 283.17 [22]
15 Abadi 2000 Indonesia Arafura Sea 300e1000 283.17 [9]
16 SNØHVIT-ALBATROSS 1982 Norway Barents Sea 320 265.43 [10]
17 Daniel East and West 2016 Israel Levant Offshore 252.021 [23]
18 Poseidon 1 2009 Australia Browse Deepwater 241.939 [24]
19 Dhirubhai 2002 Bay of Bengal Krishna-Godavari 2000e3000 198.22 [25]
20 Greater Sunrise 1975 Australia Bonaparte 75e700 188.350 [21]

2013 and 2014, 7 of the top 10 oil/gas discoveries were made
in deepwater areas [26,27]. During this stage, most of world's
deepwater oil and gas exploration activities were implemented
rapidly along the five major deepwater basin groups with
deepwater discoveries flourishing everywhere with innumer-
able achievements. The Atlantic deepwater basins, especially
the “golden triangle” composed by the Gulf of Mexico, West
Africa and Brazil, have the most active deepwater oil and gas
exploration operations. Deepwater oil/gas discoveries in West
Africa were previously concentrated in the Niger Delta Basin
and Lower Congo Basin in the central areas. In the past few
years, breakthroughs were also made in pre-salt domains of
the Kwanza Basin in the central regions and in the Cote
d’Ivoire Basin and Senegal Basin of the northern parts. Pre-
viously, Brazil deepwater oil and gas exploration operations
were concentrated in post-salt domains of the Campos Basin.
With breakthroughs in pre-salt carbonate reservoirs of the
Santos Basin in 2006, deepwater pre-salt domains have
become the hot spots for global exploration. Exploration op-
erations in the Gulf of Mexico also entered ultra-deep waters
and pre-salt domains with outstanding achievements. A series
of medium to large-scale deepwater oil fields have been
discovered in the Møre Basin and Vøring Basin on the shelf of
Mid-Norway. Furthermore, large-scale oil fields have also
been found in deepwater turbidite sandstone formations of the
Flemish Pass Basin in offshore areas of eastern Canada,
GuyanaeSuriname Basin in northeastern South America and
some other new areas. Since the beginning of deepwater
exploration in 2010, a large number of deepwater gas fields
have been discovered in the Rovuma Basin and Tanzania
Basin of East Africa. Accordingly, deepwater areas of East
Africa are essential for natural gas exploration and develop-
ment in the world. As for the West Pacific deepwater basins, a
large number of deepwater oil fields have been discovered in
deepwater areas of Southeast Asia. Major breakthroughs have
been made for natural gas exploration in the Pearl River
Mouth BasineSoutheast Hainan Basin of deepwater areas in
the northern South China Sea. Multiple deepwater gas fields
have also been found in the Neo-Tethys deepwater basins,
Northwest Shelf of Australia. In the past few years, discoveries
of several world-class deepwater gas fields in the Levant Basin
and Nile Delta Basin of the Eastern Mediterranean made the
area a hot spot for deepwater natural gas in the world.
Breakthroughs in exploration were also made in deepwater
areas of the Bay of Bengal. As for the Arctic Circle deepwater
basins, a large number of medium to large-scale deepwater oil
fields have been discovered in the Barents Sea.
In summary, over 40 years of research has led to thousands
of oil and gas fields to have been found in the top 5 large-scale
basins distributing in a pattern characterized by “three verti-
cals and two horizontals”. At the same time, hydrocarbon
production of deepwater areas increased continuously. In
2013, global deepwater oil/gas production exceeded 500
106
tons of oil equivalent (toe). Up until now, over 60 countries are
carrying out hydrocarbon exploration and development oper-
ations in deepwater areas, with deepwater exploration areas up
to 8.2
106 km2 in 110 countries/regions [28].
4. Major oil/gas discoveries in the top 5 deepwater basin
groups of the world
4.1. Atlantic deepwater basins
As typical passive continental margin basins, the Atlantic
deepwater basins were formed on stretched background. Major
basin groups include Eastern Brazil basins, Northeastern South
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28
America basins, West Africa basins, Gulf of Mexico basins,
Mid-Norway shelf basins, and Eastern Greenland continental
shelf basins. The Atlantic deepwater basins, especially those
in central and southern parts, have deepwater oil and gas
exploration operations that started early with the most dis-
coveries and the largest potential for future explorations.
4.1.1. Eastern Brazil waters
Eastern Brazil continental margin contains 12 petroliferous
sedimentary basins: Campos, Santos, Espírito Santo, Marajo,
Barreirinhas, South Seara, North Fernando, St. Louis, Poti-
guar, Tokano, SergipeeAlagoas and Riconcavo. It is one of
the regions with the highest level of research, earliest dis-
coveries and highest oil reserves in the world. These basins are
characterized by oil generation in lacustrine hydrocarbon
source rocks. Large-scale deep-sea post-salt clastic turbidite
reservoirs were discovered in the Great Campos Basin in the
1980s. In the 21st century, a large number of large-scale oil/
gas fields were discovered in pre-salt lacustrine carbonate
formations of the Santos Basin [29,30].
Majority of existing deepwater reservoirs along eastern
coastal lines of Brazil were distributed in three basins: Cam-
pos, Santos and Espírito Santo (collectively known as the
Great Campos Basin) (Fig. 2). These basins were formed due
to disintegration of gondwana and spreading of the South
Atlantic from north to south. Generally, these basins experi-
enced 4 tectonic evolution stages: pre-rifting, rifting, transition
Fig. 2. Distribution of the Great Campos Basin and deepwater oil and gas
fields in offshore areas of eastern Brazil (according to Refs. [33,34]).
5
and passive continental margin, with development of pre-salt
and post-salt stratigraphic sequences (Fig. 3). Key hydrocar-
bon source rocks in the Great Campos Basin include pre-salt
lacustrine shale of the Lower Cretaceous BarremianeLower
Aptian. Key reservoir formations in the Great Campos Basin
are primarily post-salt Upper CretaceouseMiocene deep-sea
turbidite sandstone. There are also pre-salt Lower Creta-
ceous carbonates. Key reservoir formations in the Santos
Basin are from the pre-salt Lower Cretaceous Aptian lacus-
trine carbonate. There are also post-salt Upper Cretaceous
Turonian deep-sea turbidite sandstones. Salt rocks are regional
capping formations for pre-salt reservoir formations in the
Santos Basin and Great Campos Basin, whereas marine shales
are key capping formations for post-salt reservoir formations.
Primarily subject to impacts of movements of salt structures,
post-salt traps in these basins contain structural traps, strati-
graphic traps, lithologic traps and salt-related traps. On the
other hand, sub-salt traps are subject to impacts of basement
movements with the development of structural traps [31e33].
The Great Campos Basin has the richest oil/gas reserves in
Brazil with the first oil field, Garoupa Oil Field, discovered in
1974 during exploration of offshore areas in the basin. In late
1970s, exploration operations progressed to deepwater areas
with the first large-scale deepwater oil field, Albacora Oil
Field, discovered in the mid-1980s. Later, Marlim, Bar Gra-
cuda, Marlim Sul, Roncador, Jubarte and other deepwater oil
fields were discovered one after another (Fig. 2, Table 3). Post-
salt formations had been key producing layers in the basin.
Since 2010, exploration operations expanded to pre-salt do-
mains with rich achievements. The Santos Basin contains oil/
gas enrichment second only to that in the Great Campos Basin.
Oil/gas exploration operations in the basin started in the
1930s, but no breakthrough had been made till exploration
operations progressed into deepwater areas in the 1990s.
Discovery of the first pre-salt oil field, Paraty Oil Field, in
2006 ushered in a new era with numerous discoveries of pre-
salt oil fields in the basin. Since 2007, over 10 large-scale oil/
gas fields (e.g. Lula, Carioca, Jupiter, Franco, and Libra) have
been found (Fig. 2, Table 3). These discoveries made pre-salt
formations in the basin hot spots for oil/gas exploration
[32e34].
Up until the end of 2013, 54 deepwater oil/gas fields had
been discovered in post-salt clasolite and pre-salt carbonate
reservoir formations in eastern waters of Brazil. Among them,
there are 28 post-salt clasolite oil/gas fields with a total of
recoverable reserves equal to 2.584
109 toe. Generally,
exploration activities in deepwater areas of Brazil are still in
their preliminary stage with great resource potentials in both
pre-salt and post-salt formations [35].
4.1.2. Northeastern South America
Unlike the Southwestern Brazil continental margin deep-
water areas where breakthroughs were obtained as early as the
1980s, Northeastern South America had no breakthroughs
made until recently. The massive-scale breakthroughs in this
region were listed as one of the top 10 discoveries of the world
in 2014.
6 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Fig. 3. Geological section of the Great Campos and Santos Basins in Brazil (according to Ref. [32]).

Table 3
Reserves of the top 20 deepwater oil and gas fields in offshore areas of eastern Brazil.
S/N Oil/gas fields Basin Year of Water depth/m Type Recoverable oil Recoverable natural Recoverable oil/gas Refs.
discovery reserves/(
106 t) gas reserves/(
109 m3) reserves/(
106 toe)
1 Libra Santos 2010 >2000 Oilfield [5]
2 Lula Santos 2006 2126 Oilfield 835 173.2 974 [6]
3 Franco Santos 2010 >2000 Oilfield 742 217.9 917 [6]
4 Roncador Campos 1996 1900 Oilfield 46.327 [8]
5 Marlim Sul Campos 1987 1912 Oilfield 37.803 [8]
6 Marlim Campos 1985 853 Oilfield 33.620 [8]
7 Iara Santos 2008 2230 Oilfield 271 63.1 322 [6]
8 Jupiter Santos 2008 2187 Oilfield 255 60.8 304 [6]
9 Sapinhoa Santos 2008 2153 Oilfield 252 42.5 286 [6]
10 Jubarte Campos 2001 1245 Oilfield 60.845 [8]
11 Cernambi Santos 2009 Deepwater Oilfield 209 70.8 266 [6]
12 Carara Santos 2012 Offshore Oilfield [11]
13 Carioca Santos 2007 Deepwater Oilfield 136 18.4 151 [6]
14 Corcovado Santos 2009 800 Gas field 33 138.7 145 [6]
15 Albacora Campos 1984 1000 Oilfield 22.889 [8]
16 Mexilhao Santos 2001 529 Gas field 137.944 [8]
17 Golfinho Espírito Santo 2003 1200-1300 Gas field 14.348 [33]
18 1-PAODEACUCAR-RJS Campos 2012 Deepwater Oilfield 75 63.0 126 [6]
19 4-SPS-086B Campos 2012 Deepwater Oilfield 102 21.2 119 [6]
-SPS
20 Barracuda Campos 1985 1160 Oilfield 8.941 [8]

Two large oil fields, Zaedyus and Liza, have been recently source rocks dominated by Upper Cretaceous
discovered in deepwater areas of the GuyanaeSuriname Basin CenomanianeTuronian marine rocks and reservoirs domi-
in Northeastern South America (Table 4, Fig. 4). The Zaedyus nated by Upper Cretaceous turbidite sandstone [37].
Oil Field has hydrocarbon source rocks dominated by Lower
Cretaceous lacustrineemarine shale and reservoirs dominated 4.1.3. West Africa
by Upper Cretaceous CenomanianeTuronian deep-sea turbi- With consideration to breakthroughs in both pre-salt and
dite sandstone [36]. The Liza Oil Field has hydrocarbon post-salt formations in deepwater areas of Southeastern Brazil
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 7

Table 4
Deepwater oil fields in the GuyanaeSuriname Basin.
Wells/oil & Time of Country Basin Water depth/m Reserve type Reserves or exploration discoveries Refs.
gas fields discovery/(YYYY/MM/DD)
Zaedyus-1 2011/09/09 French Guyana GuyanaeSuriname 2048 Oil Recoverable reserves: 130
106 toe [36]
Zaedyus-2 2012/12/04 1894 Oil Encountered high-quality oil-bearing [46]
formations with thickness of 85 m
Liza-1 2015/05/20 Guyana GuyanaeSuriname 1743 Oil Potential recoverable reserves: (109 [37]
Liza-2 2016/07/04 1740 Oil e191)
106toe

along the eastern margin of the South Atlantic in the 1980s, zones traveling horizontally (Fig. 6a) [41]. The middle and
West Africa also had similar basin-formation and oil- northern sections include salt basins, such as the Lower
generation conditions as those in southeastern Brazil, which Congo, Kwanza and Senegal basins with two packages of
attracted much attention. With significant breakthroughs ach- structural layers, pre-salt and post-salt, developed universally
ieved, West Africa has become another large-scale oil/gas- (Fig. 6bed) [42e45].
bearing deepwater area around the world. In the West Africa coastal basins, there are three packages
There are 15 sedimentary basins along the coastal lines of of hydrocarbon source rocks related to deepwater oil/gas
West Africa. In accordance with the types and geologic fea- fields: Lower Cretaceous lacustrine hydrocarbon source rocks,
tures, these basins can be divided into 3 sections from the Upper Cretaceous marine hydrocarbon source rocks, and
north to the south: Aaiun BasineTarfaya Basin, Senegal PaleogeneeNeogene marineedelta hydrocarbon source rocks.
Basin, Liberia Basin and Cote d’Ivoire Basin in the north; the Generally, basins in the southern section, and salt basins in the
Niger Delta Basin, Gabon Basin, Lower Congo Basin and middle section, such as the Lower Congo, Gabon and Kwanza,
Kwanza Basin in the middle; and the Namibia and South West are dominated by Lower Cretaceous lacustrine hydrocarbon
Africa coastal basins in the south. Among them, basins in the source rocks. Salt basins in the northern section are dominated
middle interval have the richest hydrocarbon reserves (Fig. 5) by Upper Cretaceous marine hydrocarbon source rocks. The
[33,38]. From 1995 to 2012, approximately 180 oil and gas
fields with a total recoverable reserves equaling
4.911
109toe were discovered in deepwater areas of West
Africa basins [39].
Formation and evolution of West Africa coastal basins are
related to Atlantic cracking and later continuous spreading
since the Mesozoic era. They are superimposed by continental
rift and passive continental margin basins induced by separa-
tion of the African Plate from the North American and South
American Plate and the extension of the Atlantic. The majority
of these basins experienced 3 tectonic evolution stages: pre-
rifting, rifting and passive continental margin [40]. The mid-
dle section includes non-salt basins, such as the Niger Delta
Basin, which is characterized by layers traveling vertically and

Fig. 4. Distribution of the GuyanaeSuriname Basin and deepwater oil and gas Fig. 5. Distribution of basins and deepwater oil and gas fields on the coast of
fields in northeastern South America (according to Ref. [37]). West Africa (according to Refs. [33,38]).
8 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Fig. 6. Geological section of the major basins on the coast of West Africa.

Niger Delta Basin in the middle section contains hydrocarbon
source rocks of predominantly Paleogene-Neogene
marineedelta hydrocarbon source rocks. Reservoir forma-
tions in deepwater areas are mostly post-salt Paleogene-
Neogene reservoirs extensively developed in basins of the
middle section. There are also some post-salt Upper Creta-
ceous reservoir formations distributed predominantly in basins
of the northern section. Key reservoir types include deepwater
turbidite sandstone and shallow shore marine sandstone. Be-
sides, breakthroughs have been made in Lower Cretaceous
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 9

carbonate formations of the Kwanza Basin with cap rocks
dominated by Cretaceous and PaleogeneeNeogene marine
mudstone. In addition, salt rocks are also key caps for pre-salt
reservoirs in these salt basins. Traps are predominantly com-
posite traps and structural traps controlled by plastic de-
formations of salt and mudstone. Hydrocarbons experienced
vertical migration along salt rocks, mudstone diapirs, frac-
tures, faults and sandstone conducting systems, or lateral
migration through surfaces of non-conformity. Among these
two modes of migration, vertical migration may prevail
[38,39,47].
Hydrocarbon exploration operations in West Africa can be
divided into 4 stages [48]: (1) early exploration stage (before
1953): surface geologic surveys and gravity-magnetic surveys;
(2) quick reserves increasing stage (1954e1973): 2D seismic
surveys, with a series of major breakthroughs achieved; (3)
slow reserves increasing stage (1974e1994): more chal-
lenging exploration operations, mainly discoveries of medium-
or small-size oil and gas fields; and (4) deepwater exploration
stage (1995 to now): much higher success rates of deepwater
exploration drilling and a series of major breakthroughs in
deepwater areas, with the support of extensive application of
3D seismic survey technologies and directional drilling tech-
nologies (Fig. 5, Table 5).
Currently, focus of deepwater oil and gas exploration in
West Africa shifted “from post-salt to pre-salt formations, and
from north to south”. To be more specific, deepwater oil and
gas exploration operations of earlier stages in West Africa
focused predominantly on deepwater post-salt domains in
basins of the central section, especially in the Niger Delta
Basin and Lower Congo Basin with the highest number of
discoveries. In recent years, with progresses in exploration
technologies for pre-salt formations in deepwater areas, major
breakthroughs have been made in pre-salt domains of the
Kwanza Basin in the central section of West Africa. Further-
more, deepwater exploration operations shifted northward
gradually to Cote d’Ivoire Basin and Senegal Basin with dis-
coveries of a large number of medium- or large-scale deep-
water oil fields.
4.1.4. Gulf of Mexico
Deepwater exploration literally started in the Gulf of
Mexico with huge oil/gas discoveries in deepwater clastic
turbidite, pre-salt, and ultra-deep water formations (Fig. 7).
Accordingly, the Gulf of Mexico is currently one of the most
important deepwater oil/gas zones in the world.
Formation and evolution of the Gulf of Mexico Basin can
be divided into 3 stages: rifting (TriassiceMid-Jurassic),
transition (Late Jurassic) and passive continental margin
(Early CretaceouseNeogene) [49], forming two structural
layers, pre-salt and post-salt (Fig. 8) [50]. These basins contain
4 packages of hydrocarbon source rocks: Upper Jurassic
OxfordianeTithonian, Lower Cretaceous Barremian, Upper
Cretaceous Turonian, and Paleogene. Among them, the Upper
Jurassic Tithonian marine shale and marlite are key hydro-
carbon source rocks. Deepwater reservoir formations include
PaleogeneeNeogene sandstone and Cretaceous carbonate.
The PaleogeneeNeogene sandstone formations are key res-
ervoirs. Furthermore, Jurassic sandstone reservoirs were also
discovered in deepwater areas in the eastern part of the basin.
Regional seals include Mid-Jurassic Louann salt rocks, and
PaleogeneeNeogene marine shale. Majority of traps are
structural traps formed by faults and salt structures with
migration of hydrocarbon along faults to form reservoirs [56].

Table 5
Reserves of the top 20 deepwater oil and gas fields in West Africa.
S/N Oil/gas fields Year of Country Basin Water depth/m Type Reserves Refs.
discovery
1 Kizomba 1998 Angola Lower Congo 1349 Oil Recoverable reserves: 273
106t [9]
2 Greater Tortue 2016 Senegal Senegal 2700 Gas Reserves: 481.1
109 m3 [20]
Complex
3 FAN 2014 Senegal Senegal 1433 Gas Roughly estimated reserves: (34e341)
106 toe [51]
4 Dalia 1997 Angola Lower Congo 1200e1500 Oil Proven and potential reserves: 136
106 t [9]
5 Agbami 1998 Nigeria Niger Delta 1463 Oil Estimated total reserves: 136
106t [9]
6 Lontra 2013 Angola Kwanza 1319 Gas/Oil 123
106toe [26,52]
7 Akpo 2000 Nigeria Niger Delta 1100e1700 Oil/Gas Proven and potential reserves: 85
106t condensate oil and [53]
28.3
109m3 natural gas
8 OCTP Project 2015 Ghana Tano 600e1000 Oil/Gas 424.5
108m3 gas and approximately 0.68
108t oil [9]
9 Great Plutonio 1999 Angola Kwanza 1200e1500 Oil Oil reserves: 102
1068t [9]
10 Orca 2014 Angola Kwanza Deepwater Oil Total oil reserves: (55e95)
106t [54]
11 SNE 2014 Senegal Senegal 1100 Gas Recoverable reserves: (20e91)
106toe [55]
12 Kaombo 2014 Angola Kwanza 1400e1900 Oil/Gas Probable reserves: 89
106toe [9]
13 Girassol 1996 Angola Lower Congo 1400 Oil Recoverable reserves: 86
106t [9]
14 Oyo 1995 Nigeria Niger Delta 410 Oil Recoverable þ potential reserves: 85
106t [9]
15 Jubilee 2007 Ghana Abidjan 1250 Oil Oil reserves >82
106t [9]
16 Bonga 1993 Nigeria Niger Delta >1000 Oil Recoverable reserves: 82
106t [9]
17 Pazflor 2009 Angola Lower Congo 600e1200 Oil Proven reserves: 80
106t [9]
18 Egina 2003 Nigeria Niger Delta 1750 Oil Probable reserves: 75
106t [9]
19 Erha 1999 Nigeria Niger Delta 1000e1200 Oil Recoverable reserves: 68
106t [9]
20 Usan 2002 Nigeria Niger Delta 750e850 Oil Recoverable reserves: 68
106t [9]
10 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Fig. 7. Distribution of basin and deepwater oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico (according to Refs. [7,9,56]).

Fig. 8. Geological section of the deepwater basin in the Gulf of Mexico (according to Ref. [50]).

With a history of more than 100 years, a large portion of
oil/gas exploration operations in the Gulf of Mexico Basin
were carried out in the United States. In the 1940s, explo-
ration operations in the Gulf of Mexico Basin penetrated
offshore areas. Discovery of the world's first deepwater oil
fielddCognac Oil Field (with a water depth of 313 m) in
1975 ushered in a new stage with deepwater oil and gas
exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and even all around the
world. Up until the end of 2000, productivities in deepwater
areas of the Gulf of Mexico have exceeded those in shallow-
water zones [56]. In the 21st century, explorations in deep-
water areas of the Gulf of Mexico entered the fast track with
discoveries of a series of major deepwater oil fields (Fig. 7,
Table 6). Up until the end of 2009, 149 deepwater oil fields
(Water depth >305 m) with proven reserves up to 707
106
toe, or 73.7% of the total reserves had been found in the Gulf
of Mexico, according to data of the US Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management for 2013 [7]. Moreover, ultra-deep oil
and gas exploration operations were active in the Gulf of
Mexico. Up to 2012, 75 discoveries had been made in ultra-
deep waters over 1500 m [57]. Deepwater oil and gas
exploration operations in the Gulf of Mexico were conducted
in different zones. Currently, the majority of deepwater oil
and gas exploration operations and discovered reserves were
distributed in three zones: Pliocene, Miocene and Paleogene
Wilcox. In the past few years, breakthroughs were also made
in deepwater Cretaceous formations, ultra-deep water salt
rocks and deepwater Jurassic formations in the eastern part.
These three exploration zones may provide sustainable re-
serves for deepwater oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of
Mexico in the future [57,60].
4.1.5. Eastern Canadian offshore area
There are uncertainties with regard to overall development
of basins in the region, but breakthroughs have been made in
exploration of deepwater areas of the Flemish Pass Basin in
the past few years. The Flemish Pass Basin is located in
Newfoundland and Labrador along the eastern costal line of
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 11

Table 6
Reserves of the top 20 deepwater oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico.
S/N Oilfield Time of Country Block Water Reserve Refs.
discovery/Year depth/m
1 Julia 2007 USA WR627 2195 Estimated oil reserves: 819
106t [7]
2 Mad dog 1988 USA GC782 1550 Reserves: 545
106t [7]
3 Stones 2005 USA WR508 2896 Estimated reserves: >273
106toe [7]
4 Crazy Horse 1999 USA Boarshcad 1800 Estimated recoverable reserves: 136
106t [12]
5 Kaskida 2006 USA KC 1798 Recoverable reserves: 100
106t [9]
6 Mars 1989 USA MC763 896 Recoverable reserves: 98
106t [9]
7 Hadrian 2011 USA KC 2133 Estimated recoverable reserves: 95
106t [7]
8 Tiber 2009 USA KC102 1295 Recoverable reserves: 89
106t oil equivalent [24]
9 Atlantis 1998 USA GC700 2026 Recoverable reserves: 82
106t [58]
10 Tahiti 2002 USA GC596, 587, 1321 Recoverable reserves: 68
106t [58]
640 and 641
11 Silvertip 2004 USA AC 2827 Recoverable reserves: 68
106t [58]
12 Thunder Horse North 2001 USA MC822 1735 Recoverable reserves: 70
106t [58]
13 Jack 2004 USA WR759 2133 Recoverable reserves: 70
106t [58]
14 Knotty Head 2005 USA GC512 1005 Recoverable reserves: 48
106t [58]
15 North platte 2012 USA GB959 1340 80
106toe [11]
16 Shenandoah 2 2013 USA WR51 1768 Probable reserve>68
106toe [7]
17 Shenzi 2002 USA GC609, 610, 1311 (48e55)
106toe [9]
653 and 654
18 Stampede 2006 USA GC512 1064 48
106toe [9]
19 Appomattox 2010 USA MC392 2212 45
106toe [9,59]
20 Lucius 2009 USA KC875 2160 41
106toe [9]

Canada between Grand Banks and Flemish Cap. The basin is
northeast to the Jeanne d’Arc and 100 km southeast to the
Orphan Basin (Fig. 9) [61].
Presently, known hydrocarbon source rocks in the Flemish
Pass Basin and neighboring areas include Upper Jurassic
KimmeridgianeTithonian marine hydrocarbon source rocks of
oil-prone types, including Upper Jurassic Egret shale.
Reservoirs are predominantly Upper JurassiceLower Creta-
ceous fluvialeshore shallow marine sandstones. In addition,
Upper CretaceousePaleogene turbidites developed in the
northern part of the basin can also be seen as key reservoir
formations. Cap rocks are predominantly Lower Cretaceous
marine shale of BerriasianeValanginian, whereas traps are
mostly structural traps [62].

Fig. 9. Distribution of the Flemish Pass Basin and deepwater oil and gas fields in offshore areas of eastern Canada (according to Refs. [61,62]).
12 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28
In the past few years, three oil fields, namely Mizzen,
Harpoon and Baydu Nord, have been found in the Flemish
Pass Basin (Fig. 9, Table 7). Discoveries of these oil fields
show the gigantic potential of deepwater exploration.
4.1.6. Shelf of Mid-Norway
Deepwater areas in the shelf of Mid-Norway have been
explored for a long time with several oil and gas fields
discovered in deepwater areas of the Møre Basin and Vøring
Basin (Fig. 10). Tectonic evolution in the shelf of Mid-Norway
is closely related to cracking of the Atlantic. Generally, the
shelf of Mid-Norway has experienced three tectonic evolution
stages: pre-rifting (Early Triassic), rifting (Early Tri-
assicePaleocene), and passive continental margin (Eocene to
the present) [64]. During the course, a series of
MesozoiceCenozoic sedimentary depressions were formed in
these basins (Fig. 11) [65,66].
Hydrocarbon source rocks in the shelf of Mid-Norway
include Lower Jurassic delta plain mud shale and coal mea-
sures, and Upper Jurassic marine shale. The Upper Jurassic
marine shale acts as key hydrocarbon source rocks. Key res-
ervoirs include Middle Jurassic rifting marine sandstone and
CretaceousePaleogene turbidite sandstone, predominantly
with Middle Jurassic rifting marine sandstone. These basins
contain two types of play assemblages: lower generation and
upper preservation, and upper-generation and lower preser-
vation. Majority of traps are structural traps, with marine
mudstone as cap rocks. Oil/gas predominantly migrated over
short distances along fractures, conductive layers and faults to
form reservoirs; they might have migrated over long distances
along surfaces of non-conformity of formations or connecting
sandstone structures to form reservoirs [66,67].
Since 1980, Norway has shifted its focus of oil/gas explo-
ration to the shelf of Mid-Norway. So far, multiple oil and gas
fields have been discovered in deepwater areas of the basin
(Fig. 10, Table 8). According to the United States Geological
Survey (USGS), there are more oil/gas fields to be discovered
in the shelf of Mid-Norway, especially in poorly explored
deepwater areas [68].
4.2. East Africa continental margin deepwater basins
Compared with prolonged exploration history and gigantic
discoveries in North Africa and West Africa, East Africa
deepwater areas experienced breakthroughs only in the past
few years with discoveries of a number of world-class
deepwater gas fields in Rovuma, Tanzania and some other
basins.
Table 7
New oil and gas discoveries in deepwater areas of eastern Canada.
Oilfield Time of discovery/(YYYY/ Basin
MM/DD)
Mizzen 2010 Flemish Pass
Harpoon 2012/6/20
Bay du Nord 2013/6/29
East Africa passive continental margin refers to shore lines
of East Africa south of Somalia. It includes 7 basins: Somalia,
Ramu, Tanzania, Rovuma, Zambezi Delta, Morondava and
Majunga (Fig. 12) [15]. Drilling and exploration operations
along coastal lines of East Africa started in 1958. Up to 2010,
only 7 medium- or small-sized gas fields with commercial
values had been found in on-shore and shallow-water zones.
Since August 2010, exploration operations switched into
deepwater and ultra-deep waters. Up until the end of 2014, 36
medium- or large-sized gas fields, including 9 deepwater
major gas fields, had been found in the Rovuma Basin and the
Tanzania Basin (Fig. 12, Table 9). With success rates over
80% for exploration wells, East Africa is currently a hot spot
for natural gas exploration in the world [15,71].
Generally, East African passive continental margin basins
have experienced 3 tectonic evolution stages: inland rifting
(Late CarboniferouseTriassic), inlandeinterland rifting
(Jurassic), and passive continental margin (Cretaceous to the
present), forming the basin structures characterized by “faults
in lower sections and depressions in upper sections” of the
passive continental margin (Fig. 13). Generally, earlier stages
are dominated by sedimentation in rifting lake basins, whereas
later stages are dominated by marine sedimentation in passive
shifting [15,71,75].
The East African passive continental margin basins contain
3 packages of hydrocarbon source rocks: Upper
CarboniferouseLower Jurassic continental shale and coal
measures, Middle-Upper JurassiceCretaceous marine shale,
and PaleogeneeNeogene continental shelfeslope shale.
Middle-Upper JurassiceCretaceous marine shale can be seen
as the dominant hydrocarbon source rocks of shore basins in
East Africa. The PermianeNeogene formations often contain
multiple reservoirs dominated by delta sandstone and deep-sea
turbidite sandstone, distributed mostly in the Rovuma Basin
and Tanzania Basin. Cap rocks are predominantly marine
shale with thick evaporite developed regionally. Majority of
traps are structural traps with hydrocarbons migrating along
faults to form reservoirs [76e78].
Currently, all of the discoveries in deepwater areas of East
Africa are distributed in the northern Rovuma Delta Basin and
slopes of the Tanzania Basin. With a low overall exploration
degree, deepwater areas may present great potential for future
exploration operations.
4.3. West Pacific deepwater basins
West Pacific deepwater basins refer to those formed in a
regional stretched tectonic environment undergoing Pacific
Water depth/m Reserve type Recoverable reserves/ Refs.
(
106toe)
1100 Oil 14e27 [26,63]
1100 Oil 15
1100 Oil 68
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 13

Fig. 10. Distribution of basins and deepwater oil and gas fields in the shelf of Mid-Norway (according to Refs. [69,70]).

Fig. 11. Geological section of the Vøring basin in the shelf of Mid-Norway (according to Ref. [65]).

Plate subduction to the Eurasian Plate. These basins include
Okhotsk Sea, Japanese Sea, South China Sea and Gippsland
Basin in southeastern Australia. A large number of oil/gas
fields have been discovered in deepwater areas of these basins.
4.3.1. Deepwater areas in northern South China Sea
Continental margin deepwater basins in northern South
China Sea can be divided into 2 belts in the north and south,
respectively: the northern belt is distributed along the South-
east Hainan BasinePearl River Mouth Basin Zhu-2 Depres-
sion and Chaoshan DepressioneTaixinan Basin; the southern
belt is distributed along the Zhongsha Trough
BasineShuangfeng BasineJianfeng BasineBijianan Basin
[79] (Fig. 14). Majority of existing oil/gas discoveries in
deepwater areas of the South China Sea are distributed in the
Southeast Hainan Basin and Pearl River Mouth Basin.
Deepwater areas of the continental slope in the Pearl River
Mouth BasineSoutheast Hainan Basin have a short explora-
tion history with seismic surveys started in the late 1970s and
drilling operations started in the mid-1980s. In the Pearl River
Mouth Basin, the first deepwater exploration welldLufeng-
22-1-1 (water depth of 332 m) was drilled in 1986. Since then,
Liuhua 11-1 Oil Field, Liwan 3-1 Gas Field, Liuhua 34-2 Gas
Field, Liuhua 29-1 Gas Field, Liuhua 16-2 Gas Field and
multiple petroliferous structures have been discovered (Table
10) [81]. Exploration operations in deepwater areas of the
Southeast Hainan Basin started in the past decade. At the end
of 2010, Lingshui 22-1 structural natural gas reservoir was
penetrated in shallow formations of deepwater areas. Since
then, Lingshui 17-2, Lingshui 25-1, Lingshui 18-1 and other
gas fields have been discovered in the Central Canyon System
(Table 10) [82]. Breakthroughs of hydrocarbon exploration in
these deepwater areas highlighted gigantic potential for hy-
drocarbon exploration in deepwater areas in the northern
South China Sea.
Deepwater areas in the northern South China Sea have
experienced 3 tectonic evolution stages: rifting, thermal sub-
sidence, and neotectonic stages in the Cenozoic era. Conse-
quently, these zones have evolution features of a passive
continental margin with basin structures characterized by
14 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Table 8
Major deepwater oil and gas fields in the shelf of Mid-Norway.
Gas field Time of discovery/(YYYY/ Water depth/m Recoverable reserves Total recoverable reserves/ Refs.
MM/DD) Oil/(
10 t)
6
Gas/(
10 m )
9 3 (
106toe)

6506/12-1Smorbukk 1996/06/06 303 103.40 285.27 348.20 [10]

6305/5-1 OrmenLange 1997/10/07 857 16.22 296.4 270.39 [10]
6507/7/2 Heidrun 1985/06/10 351 159.61 53.88 205.85 [10]
6608/10-2 Norne 1992/01/29 374 78.35 11.19 87.95 [10]
6507/5-1 Skarv 1998/05/03 323 15.36 53.55 61.31 [10]
6406/2e3 Kristin 1997/09/29 341 21.62 41.40 57.15 [10]
6407/7-1S Njord 1986/04/07 328 25.40 27.47 48.97 [10]
6603/12-1 Gro 2009/06/20 1376 0 55.0 47.19 [10]
6707/10-1 Aasta Hansteen 1997/07/23 1274 0 45.5 38.62 [10]
6605/8-1 2005/10/22 838 0 33.0 28.32 [10]
6406/3-2 Trestakk 1986/11/22 300 8.03 2.72 10.37 [10]
6506/6-1 Victoria 2000/12/07 434 0 26.79 22.99 [10]
6406/9-1 Linnorm 2005/06/02 308 0.50 24.35 21.40 [10]
6507/7e14 S Zidane 2010/09/26 344 0.36 18.37 16.12 [10]
6705/10-1 Asterix 2009/03/19 1335 0.24 17.17 14.98 [10]
6506/11-7 Morvin 2001/07/27 356 8.67 6.98 14.66 [10]
6406/3-8 Maria 2010/08/10 303 21.45 6.3 26.86 [10,72]
6406/12-3 S Pil 2014/06/11 324 9.53 5.83 14.53 [10,73]
6201/11-3 Albert 2012/06/16 383 0 13.3 11.41 [10,74]

Fig. 12. Distribution of basins and deepwater gas fields in East Africa (according to Ref. [15]).

different belts in the north and south, and different blocks in
the east and west, respectively [83]. Deepwater areas in the
northern South China Sea contain 3 packages of hydrocarbon
source rocks: Eocene medium to deep lacustrine hydrocarbon
source rocks, Lower Oligocene hydrocarbon source rocks of
marine-continent transitional facies, and Upper Oligocene
marine hydrocarbon source rocks. Among them, hydrocarbon
source rocks of marine-continent transitional facies are pri-
mary hydrocarbon source rocks, whereas marine hydrocarbon
source rocks are also important ones, and lacustrine hydro-
carbon source rocks are potential hydrocarbon source rocks
[84]. Deepwater areas include 4 packages of reservoir for-
mations: Eocene fluvialedeltaefan delta sandstone, Lower
Oligocene marine-continent transitional sandstone, Upper
Oligocene shallow marineedelta deepwater gravity flow
sandstone, and MioceneePliocene deepwater fan and organic
reef. Among them, deep-sea fans are key reservoir formations
[79,81]. Key trap types include draping anticlines, faults and
other types of structural traps, together with organic reef,
deepwater fan and other lithologic traps [83]. The Baiyun Sag
of deepwater areas in the Pearl River Mouth Basin was
dominated by lateral migration in the early stages, and
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 15

Table 9
Deepwater giant gas fields in East Africa.
Gas field Time of discovery/(YYYY/ Country Basin Water depth/m Recoverable reserves/ Refs.
DD) (
109m3)
Mamba 2012/03 Mozambique Rovuma Basin 1690 1557.6 [15]
Prosperidade 2010/11 Mozambique Rovuma Basin 1548 731.1 [15]
Golfinho 2012/05 Mozambique Rovuma Basin 1027 559.7 [15]
Coral 2012/05 Mozambique Rovuma Basin 2261 305.4 [15]
Mzia 2012/05 Tanzania Rovuma Basin 1639 153.0 [15]
Agulha 2013/08 Mozambique Rovuma Basin 2492 146.1 [15]
Jodari 1 2012/03 Tanzania Rovuma Basin 1295 120.7 [15]
Tangawizi 2013/03 Tanzania Tanzania Basin 2490 111.1 [15]
Lavani 1 2012/12 Tanzania Tanzania Basin 2490 111.1 [15]

Fig. 13. Geological section of Rovuma and Tanzania basin in East Africa [75].

dominated by vertical migration or rampeflat migration in the
later stages; deepwater areas in the Southeast Hainan Basin are
dominated by vertical migration [81,83]. Controlled jointly by
origins and heat, oil/gas fields in the northern parts of the
South China Sea are distributed with oil in the external fields
and natural gas in the internal fields with deepwater areas
containing mostly gas and some oil [80].
Currently, medium to large-size structural traps are top
priorities for exploration in deepwater areas of the northern
South China Sea, in which multiple reservoirs have been
discovered [91]. Lithologic traps, such lithologic traps of the
Enping Formation in the Baiyun Sag of the Pearl River Mouth
Basin, are deemed to be a new domain for exploration of
deepwater areas in the northern South China Sea [92]. In
addition, with major breakthroughs, the Central Canyon Sys-
tem of the Southeast Hainan Basin may also become one of
the most important exploration domains in deepwater areas of
the northern South China Sea [82,93].
4.3.2. Southeast Asia offshore areas
There are over 100 sedimentary basins in Southeast Asia
and 47 of these basins were found to contain oil/gas. Key oil/
gas-bearing basins in offshore areas include Thailand Bay,
Malay, West Natuna, East Natuna, Sarawak, BruneieSabah,
Palawan, Tarakan, Kutei, East Java, West Java, South Suma-
tra, Mid-Sumatra, North Sumatra and Saraswati basins
(Fig. 15) [94,95].
Currently, the majority of key oil and gas discoveries of
deepwater areas in Southeast Asia is distributed in passive
continental margin basins around Kalimantan. Among them,
the Kutei Basin has experienced 3 tectonic evolution stages:
rifting, thermal subsidence and reversal. The basin is charac-
terized by structural features with a fault in the lower part and
depression in the upper part (Fig. 16) [96].
Petroliferous basins in Southeast Asia contain 3 sets of
hydrocarbon source rocks in the Eocene, Oligocene and
Miocene eras, respectively. The Cenozoic fluvialedelta near-
16 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Fig. 14. Distribution of basins and deepwater oil and gas fields in the South China Sea [80].

shore marineecontinental transitional coal measures and
carbonaceous shale can be considered as primary hydrocarbon
source rocks, whereas lacustrine and marine shale are sec-
ondary ones [97,98]. Deepwater reservoirs are dominated by
Cretaceous and PaleogeneeNeogene formations, especially
PaleogeneeNeogene deep-sea turbidite sandstones [99]. Pet-
roliferous basins in Southeast Asia contain two major play
assemblages: Paleogene rifting and Neogene faulting. In the
Paleogene play assemblage, hydrocarbon source rocks are
dominated by lacustrine mudstone, and reservoirs are domi-
nated by fluvialedelta sandstone, suggesting typical self-
generation and self-preservation assemblage. For this assem-
blage, reservoir distribution is controlled by hydrocarbon-
generation sags, where hydrocarbons migrate laterally and
vertically, and key trap types include anticlines, faulted anti-
clines and faulted noses generated due to squeezing in the Late
Miocene era. In the Neogene assemblage, hydrocarbon source
rocks are predominantly lacustrine mudstone formed during
faulting of lower formations; hydrocarbons communicate with
upper reservoir formations through faults or surfaces of non-
conformity to form hydrocarbon pools; key reservoirs
include delta sandstone, carbonate organic reef and deep-sea
turbidite sandstone. The Paleogene assemblage is one of the
most important ones in Southeast Asia; over 400 reservoirs
with a total reserve of 1.195
109 toe have been found. The
Neogene assemblage is the most critical assemblage in
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 17

Table 10
Major deepwater oil and gas fields in the northern South China Sea.
Oil/gas fields Time of Basin Water depth/m Reserve type Reserves Refs.
discovery/(YYYY/MM/DD)
Lingshui 17-2 2014/08/18 Southeast 1450e1550 Gas Proved natural gas geologic reserves: [82]
Hainan Island 102.0
109m3
Lingshui 25-1 2014/11/05 980 Gas Proved natural gas geologic reserves: 47.2
109m3 [82]
Lingshui 18-1 2015/12 1688 Gas Proved natural gas geologic reserves: 16.7
109m3 [82]
Liwan 3-1 2006 Pearl River Mouth 1300e1500 Gas Predicted recoverable reserves: (113.3 [85]
e169.9)
109m3
Liuhua 34-2 2009/12/29 1145 Gas Daily productivity in test: 1.55
106 m3/d [86]
Liuhua 29-1 2010/02/09 720 Gas Daily natural gas productivity in test: [87]
1.6131
106 m3/d
Liuhua 20-2 2015/05/27 390 on average Oil Daily oil productivity in test: 1091.41 t/d [88]
Liuhua 16-2 2010/05 370e410 Oil Daily oil productivity in test: 476.60 t/d [89]
Liuhua 11-1 1987 300 on average Oil Geologic oil Reserves: 200
106t [90]

Southeast Asia; more than 1500 reservoirs with a total reserve
of 12.024
109 toe have been found. Accordingly, the
Neogene assemblage is a key target of exploration in South-
east Asia [95].
Oil/gas exploration operations in Southeast Asia involve
Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam and
Philippines. Previous exploration operations were distributed
predominantly in on-shore and shallow-water areas. Since the
21st century, exploration operations have progressed rapidly to
deepwater areas. A large number of deepwater oil fields have
been found in BruneieSabah, Palawan, Sarawak, Kutei and
other basins or deepwater areas (Table 11). Discovery of these
oil fields highlights the great potentials of deepwater areas in
Southeast Asia. Estimates show that deepwater areas of
Southeast Asia contain rich hydrocarbon resources, accounting
for approximately 17% of the world's total [99]. However,
exploration operations in deepwater areas are still in their
preliminary stages. In the future, deepwater areas in Southeast
Asian countries can be seen as the key contributors for
enhancement of both reserves and production.
4.4. Surround-Arctic deepwater basins
The Arctic Circle deepwater basins, distributed on a
stretched background, include Barents Sea Basin, Kara Sea
Basin, Laptev Sea Continental Shelf Basin, East Siberian Sea,
Chukotskoye More, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Beaufort Sea
and Baffin Bay. Due to special geographic, climatic and
environmental conditions in the Arctic, exploration operations
started late. However, major breakthroughs have been made.
4.4.1. Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is the largest marginal sea of the Arctic
Ocean. The Barents Sea Basin includes two secondary

Fig. 15. Distribution of major basins in Southeast Asia (according to Refs. [94,95]).
18 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Fig. 16. Geological section of the Kutai Basin in Southeast Asia (according to Ref. [96]).

Table 11
Major deepwater oil and gas fields in Southeast Asia.
Oil/gas fields Year of Country Basin/Block Water depth/m Reserve type Reserves Refs.
discovery
Abadi 2000 Indonesia Arafura Sea 300e1000 Gas Estimated reserves: 283.0
109m3 [9]
Malampaya 2001 Philippines N.W. Palawan 820 Gas Recoverable reserves: (87.164 [9]
e93.107)
109m3
West Sento 2001 Indonesia Kutei 963 Gas Geologic reserves: 94.13
106t [103]
Ubah-2 2005 Malaysia Sabah Sea Block G 1430 Oil Expected oil reserves: 68.21
106t [104]
Kikeh 2006 Malaysia Baram Delta 1300 Oil Estimated recoverable reserves: (54.57 [107]
e95.50)
106t
Gumusat-Kakap 2003 Malaysia Baram Delta 1250 Oil Recoverable reserves: 59.62
106t [9]
Kebabangan 1994 Malaysia Sabah Sea 100e400 Gas Estimated reserves: 62.26
109m3 [9]
Jangkrik Complex 2009 Indonesia Malabar Block 200e500 Gas Proven reserves: 367.9
109m3 [9]
Development
Malikai 2004 Malaysia Sabah Sea Block G 565 Oil/Gas Recoverable reserves: (6.82 [9]
e13.64)
106toe
Rotan 2007 Malaysia Sabah Sea 1028 Gas Estimated reserves: 26.885
109m3 [9]
Galoc 1981 Philippines N.W. Palawan 290e400 Oil Estimated reserves: 1.36
106t [9]

structural units: Barents Sea Platform and East Barents Sea
Basin (Fig. 17) [100,101].
Generally, the Barents Sea Basin has experienced 3 tectonic
evolution stages: intensive tectonic movement (Pre-Triassic),
inland rifting (TriassiceEarly Cenozoic), and passive
Fig. 17. Distribution of basins and deepwater oil and gas fields in the Barents
Sea (according to Refs. [3,100,101]).
continental margin (Cenozoic). The basin is composed pre-
dominantly by pre-rifting and rifting sedimentary sequences
(Fig. 18) [102]. The Barents Sea continental shelf contains two
source-reservoir-cap rock assemblages. The first assemblage is
of lower-generation and upper preservation type, with
LowereMiddle Triassic marine-continent transitional black
shale serving as the source rocks, the Triassic massive slope
delta sediments as the reservoir, and the Triassic shale as cap
rocks. The second assemblage is of upper generation and
lower preservation type, with the Upper Jurassic marine shale
serving as the source rocks, the Jurassic littoral and marine-
continent transitional sandstone as the reservoir, and the
Upper JurassiceLower Cretaceous marine shale as the cap
rocks. Traps are predominantly structural traps and fault traps
[102,105,106].
According to USGS' 2008 report, potential reserves in the
Barents Sea Basin include crude oil of 919
106 toe, natural
gas of 9.49
1012m3 and condensate oil of 181
106 toe
[105]. Exploration operations in the Barents Sea involve two
countries: Norway and Russia. A large number of oil/gas fields
have been discovered (Table 12, Table 13) in deepwater areas
(>300 m). In the future, the Barents Sea may also present
significant potential in exploration.
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 19

Fig. 18. Geological section of the east Barents Sea Basin (according to Ref. [102]).

Table 12
Major deepwater oil and gas fields in the Barents Sea Basin of Norway.
Oil/gas fields Time of Water depth/m Recoverable reserves Total recoverable Refs.
discovery/(YYYY/MM/DD) 6
Oil/(
10 t) 9
Gas/(
10 m ) 3 reserves/(
106toe)

7121/4-1 SNØHVIT 1984/10/27 335 22.65 239.03 227.77 [10]

7120/9-1 ALBATROSS 1982/09/26 320
7220/7-1 havis 2012/01/24 365 73.69 13.96 85.67 [10]
7220/8-1 Johan Castberg 2011/05/02 374
7225/3-1 Norvarg 2011/09/25 377 0 48.0 41.19 [10]
7324/8-1 Wisting 2013/09/17 398 32.87 0 32.87 [10]
7220/11-1 Alta 2014/10/18 388 22.40 9.7 30.72 [10]
7324/7-2 Hanssen 2014/07/06 418 30.03 0 30.03 [10]
7122/7-1 Goliat 2000/100/5 381 24.46 0 24.46 [10]
7222/6-1 S Obesum 2008/03/10 364 24.20 1.7 25.66 [10]
7226/2-1 Ververis 2008/07/19 347 1.20 26.8 24.20 [10]
7120/1e3 Gohta 2013/10/07 342 12.50 6.22 17.84 [10]
7319/12-1 Pingvin 2014/09/22 422 0 20.5 17.85 [10]
7220/7-3 Drivis 2014/05/03 345 7.29 0 7.29 [10]

Table 13
Major deepwater oil and gas fields in the Barents Sea Basin of Russia.
Gas fields Year of discovery Water depth/m Reserve type Recoverable Refs.
reserves/(
109m3)
Shtokmanovskoye 1988 330 Gas, condensate oil 3200 [13,14]
Ludlovskoye 1990 About 300 Gas 1500 [13,14]
Ledovoye 1991 About 300 Gas e [14,16]
North kildinskoye 1983 About 300 Gas e [16,17]
Murmanskoye 1984 About 300 Gas, condensate oil 1.2 [16,17]

4.5. Neo-Tethys deepwater basins
The structural domain includes the passive continental
margin basins in the Northwest Shelf of Australia, Myanmar
Bay deepwater basins, Bay of Bengal deepwater basins,
Arabian Gulf deepwater basins and Mediterranean deepwater
basins. With different formation environments and large
scales, these basins contribute to multiple massive gas-rich
zones.
4.5.1. Northwest shelf of Australia
The Northwest Shelf of Australia is predominantly
composed of four basins: North Carnarvon, Roebuck, Browse
and Bonaparte (Fig. 19). The first exploration well in the area
20 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

Fig. 19. Distribution of basins and deepwater gas fields in the northwest shelf of Australia (according to Ref. [110]).

Fig. 20. Geological section of the North Carnarvon Basin in the northwest shelf of Australia [109].

was drilled in 1953. Up until 2010, over 900 wells had been
drilled in the North Carnarvon, Browse and Bonaparte basins.
In total, 282 oil and gas fields with cumulative recoverable oil
reserves of 999
106 toe and recoverable gas reserves of
5.72
1012m3 have been found. With the proportion of gas
reserves up to 83.2%, this area can be classified as a typical
“gas rich but oil poor” region in the world [19].
Evolution history of the Northwest Shelf of Australia is
closely related to disintegration of Gondwana. Generally, the
area has experienced 4 tectonic evolution stages: intracraton
depression (Pre-Permian), rifting (PermianeEarly Creta-
ceous), passive continental margin (Late Creta-
ceouseCenozoic), and tectonic reversal (Cenozoic) [108]. All
basins have structural configuration characterized by “faults in
lower sections and depressions in upper sections”. With sig-
nificant thicknesses, Mesozoic formations are the key oil-
bearing formations, such as those in the North Carnarvon
Basin (Fig. 20) [109].
In the Northwest Shelf of Australia, hydrocarbon source
rocks are predominantly Triassic and Jurassic
marineecontinental delta mudstone, carbonaceous mudstone
and coal measures; reservoirs are predominantly Lower
Triassic and MideLower Jurassic fluvialedelta sandstones,
Upper JurassiceLower Cretaceous delta sandstone, as well as
under-water fan or turbidite sandstone; regional cap rocks
include Cretaceous marine shale of passive continental margin
stage. Hydrocarbons migrate vertically through faults, or
laterally through surfaces of non-conformity or structural
ridges to form reservoirs. Majority of traps are anticlinal traps,
fault traps or structural traps of other forms [108,109,111].
Majority of existing reservoirs have overall distribution pat-
terns characterized by “oil in the upper part, gas in the lower
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 21

Table 14
Major deepwater gas fields in the northwest shelf of Australia.
Gas fields Time of Basin Water depth/m Recoverable reserves Recoverable Refs.
discovery/ 9
Gas/(
10 m ) 3
Condensate reserves/(
106toe)
(YYYY/MM/DD) oil/(
106t)
Jansz 2000 North Carnarvon 1321 566.0 [19]
Io 2001 North Carnarvon 1321 84.9 [19]
Chrysaor 1994 North Carnarvon Deepwater 87.73 5.46 [19]
Dionysus 1988 North Carnarvon Deepwater 84.9 [19]
Brecknork 1979 Browse 500e750 149.99 7.78 [19,111]
Geryon 1999 North Carnarvon 1231 113.2 [19,111]
Orthrus 1999 North Carnarvon 1201 84.9 [19,114]
Chandon 2006 North Carnarvon 1201 99.05 [21]
Thebe 2007 North Carnarvon 1173 65.09 [21]
Scarborough 1980 North Carnarvon 923 147.16 [21]
Torosa 1971 Browse 500 322.62 16.51 [21]
Greater Sunrise 1975 Bonaparte 75e700 145.179 30.83 [21]
Clio 2006 North Carnarvon 960 99.05 [21,115]
Poseidon 1 2009/05/20 Browse Deepwater 187.85 [24]
Pluto 2006 North Carnarvon 900 130.18 [16]
Acme l 2010/07/22 North Carnarvon 878 35.20 [59,84]

part; oil in near-shore areas and gas in far-shore areas”
[110,112]. Deepwater oil and gas exploration in the Northwest
Shelf of Australia started in 1979. With large-scale application
of 3D seismic data and state-of-the-art seismic data interpre-
tation technologies since 1992, deepwater oil and gas explo-
ration has success rates up to 50% [113]. Up until now, several
deepwater gas fields, such as Jansz, Io, Chrysaor and
Dionysus, have been discovered in the area (Table 14).
Generally, the area has a relatively low degree of exploration
with broad prospects in rifting formations of deepwater areas.
4.5.2. Bay of Bengal
Located in offshore areas to the east of the Indian continent,
west of MyanmareAndamaneSumatra and south to
Bangladesh, the Bay of Bengal contains multiple continental
margin petroliferous basins. According to plate positions and
structural features, these basins can be classified into three
categories: passive continental margin basins (including
Mahanadi, KrishnaeGodavari and Cauvery Basin) in the west;
active continental margin basins (including Rakhine, Marta-
ban, Andaman and the North Sumatra Basin) in the east, and
residual oceanic basins (Bengal Basin) in the north (Fig. 21)
[116,117].
Majority of deepwater discoveries in the Bay of Bengal is
distributed in the passive continental margin basins in the
west. For example, the KrishnaeGodavari Basin experienced
Pre-Jurassic craton development, JurassiceEarly Cretaceous
rifting, late Early Cretaceouselate Late Cretaceous passive
continental margin and Paleoceneepresent neotectonic stages
[25,118], with sedimentation of extremely thick stratigraphic
sequences of rifting and post-rifting periods (Fig. 22) [119].

Fig. 21. Distribution of basins in the Bay of Bengal (according to Refs. Fig. 22. Geological section of the Krishna-Godavari Basin in the Bay of
[116,117]). Bengal (according to Ref. [119]).
22 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28

In the Bay of Bengal, key hydrocarbon source rocks include

Cretaceous and Paleogene marine hydrocarbon source rocks;
reservoirs are dominated by deltaelittoral sandstone, and
mostly channel sandstone and turbidite sandstone in deepwater
areas; cap rocks are dominated by deltaelittoral shale. Ma-
jority of traps are structural traps of the shifting period, and
hydrocarbons migrate along faults to form pools
[25,117,120e123].
Hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal involves 3
key players: India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Currently,
exploration operations are conducted predominantly in on-
shore and shallow-water zones of peripheral basins. In the
past few years, discoveries for deepwater natural gas were
made in KrishnaeGodavari, Cauvery and Rakhine basins
(Table 15). These discoveries show that deepwater areas in
these basins have bright prospects for natural gas exploration.

4.5.3. Eastern Mediterranean

Recently, a series of major natural gas discoveries have
been made in deepwater areas of the Nile Delta Basin and the
Levant Basin in Eastern Mediterranean (Fig. 23, Table 16),
making the area a hot spot for natural gas exploration [22].
The Nile Delta Basin can be classified as a passive conti-
nental margin basin of the “delta transformed type” [124].
Hydrocarbon source rocks are Paleogene marine hydrocarbon
source rocks; reservoirs are dominated by Miocene delta
sandstone and Pliocene deepwater slope channel sandstone;
regional cap rocks are Pliocene marine mud shale. Traps are
mostly structural traps and some stratigraphic traps. Hydro-
carbons migrate along faults and surfaces of non-conformity to
form pools [125]. The Levant Basin can be classified as a
passive continental margin basin of “positive and reverse
rotation transformed type” [124]. Marine marlite of Upper
Cretaceous Mt Scopus formation serves as the key hydrocar-
bon source rocks in the basin [18]. Discovered large-scale
reservoirs are distributed predominantly in
OligoceneeMiocene and Pliocene valleys and deepwater
turbidite fan sandstones [126]. Hydrocarbon source rocks and
reservoirs in the basin are controlled by structural reverse with
Fig. 23. Distribution of basins and deepwater oil and gas fields in the eastern
Mediterranean (according to Refs. [22,126]).
oil/gas reservoirs of a “reversed formation squeezed anticline
type” formed through vertical migration or redistribution
through reserve faults (Fig. 24) [124].
Oil/gas exploration operations along coastal areas of
Eastern Mediterranean started in 1968. Previous exploration
was predominantly conducted in on-shore and shallow-water
zones of the Nile Delta Basin. Commercial drilling opera-
tions in the Levant Basin started in 2008. The Tamar Gas Field
was found in deepwater areas of the basin in 2009. Since then,
many major discoveries of natural gas reservoirs have been
made in deepwater areas (Fig. 23, Table 16). Exploration
operations have also been implemented in deepwater areas of
the Nile Delta Basin with discovery of gigantic gas fields
(Table 16). All of these discoveries highlighted bright explo-
ration prospects of deepwater areas in the Eastern
Mediterranean.

Table 15
Major deepwater gas fields in the Bay of Bengal.
Wells/oil or gas fields Year of discovery Country Basin Water depth/m Exploration situation Refs.
Dhirubhai 2002 India Krishna-Godavari 2000e3000 198.22
10 m9 3
[118]
Well CY-III-D5-A1 2007 India Cauvery 1185 Daily gas production in test: [127]
877.3
103 m3/d, condensate oil: 163.71 t/d
R1 Gas Field 2012 India Krishna-Godavari Deepwater Estimated gas reserves: 45.28
109m3 [128]
Well CYIIID5-S1 2013 India Cauvery 1743 Daily gas production in test: [129]
995.2
103 m3/d, condensate oil: 56.34 t/d
Well KG-OSN-04/1NASG 2015 India Krishna-Godavari Deepwater Pure producing formation with thickness of [130]
25 m
Well KG-DWN-98/2-M-4 2015 India Krishna-Godavari Deepwater Pure producing formation with thickness up [131]
to 78 m
Shwe Yee Htun-1 Gas Field 2016 Myanmar Rakhine Deepwater Natural gas producing zone with width of [132]
129 m and thickness no less than 15 m
Thalin-1A Gas Field 2016 Myanmar Rakhine 836 Encountered gas column with height of 64 m [133]
approximately
 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28 23

Table 16
Major deepwater gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean.
Gas fields Time of Country Basin Water depth/m Recoverable reserves Refs.
discovery/(YYYY/MM/DD)
Tamar 2009 Israel Levant 1676 Estimated to be 283.0
109m3 [22]
Dalit 2009 Israel Levant Offshore Estimated to be 14.15
109m3 [22]
Dolphin 2011 Israel Levant Offshore Estimated to be 2.264
109m3 [22]
Aphrodite 2011 Cyprus Levant 1689 129
106toe [18]
Shimshon 2012 Israel Levant Offshore Estimated to be 65.09
109m3 [22]
Tanin 2012/02/08 Israel Levant Offshore Estimated to be 33.96
109m3 [18]
Leviathan 2010 Israel Levant 1634 480
106toe [18]
Karish 2013 Israel Levant 1738 Estimated to be 50.94
109m3 [22,136],
Tamar Southwest 2013 Israel Levant Offshore 19.81
109m3 [137]
Royee field 2014 Israel Levant Offshore 90.56
109m3 [137]
Salamat 2013/09/07 Egypt Nile Delta 649 72
106toe [18]
Atoll-1 2015/03/09 Egypt Nile Delta Deepwater Estimated potential reserves: 141.5
109m3 [138]
Zohr 2015/08/30 Egypt Nile Delta >2000 501
106toe [18]
Daniel East and West 2016/01/17 Israel Levant Offshore Estimated to be 251.87
109m3 [23]

5. Prospects of deepwater oil and gas exploration
Globally, exploration of deepwater basins involves 6 new
domains composed by “two olds and four news”. “Two olds”
refers to the Atlantic deepwater petroliferous basins in the
north-south direction and the deepwater gas-rich basins of the
Neo-Tethys structural domain in approximately the east-west
direction, which are highly explored and have significant po-
tential. The former is the key deepwater oil producing zone,
and also a hot spot with the fastest increase in both reserves
and production in the past few years. The latter has attracted
more and more attention due to discoveries of massive natural
gas reserves. “Four news” refers to deep pre-salt, ultra-deep
water, Arctic Circle deepwater basins, and Pre-West Pacific
deepwater basins [4].
5.1. Deep pre-salt formations
basin. With reservoir formations at approximately 6000 m
below sea level and water depths of 1500e3000 m, this oil
field contains reserves of 900
106 toe. In 2008, the Iara Oil
Field with estimated oil reserves of 314
106 toe was
discovered in the BM-S-11 Block. This oil field has reservoir
formations at 6000 m below sea level and water depths of
2200 m. Reserves of these two oil fields are nearly twice the
total oil reserves previously discovered in Brazil. The Guara
Oil Field declared in 2009 has recoverable reserves of
(150e273)
106 toe, with reservoir formations at approxi-
mately 7000 m below sea level. The Carioca Oil Field
discovered in the BM-S-9 Block in 2009 is also distributed in
pre-salt formations. In addition, 2 pre-salt oil fields were
discovered in the vicinity of the Jubarte Oil Field in the Great
Campos Basin in 2008. One oil field has a daily oil produc-
tivity of 2.5
103 toe/d and the other oil field has oil-bearing
formations of 60 m in thickness [134,135].

Currently, the majority of exploration operations for pre-
salt oil/gas in deepwater areas of Eastern Brazil is distrib-
uted in the Santos Basin, where pre-salt exploration started in
2004. Up until the end of 2009, 16 wells had been drilled in
pre-salt formations of the area, with a success rate of 100%
[139]. In April 2006, Petrobras discovered the massive Lula
Oil Field in pre-salt formations of the BM-S-11 Block in the
5.2. Ultra-deep waters
As another hot spot for offshore hydrocarbon exploration,
“ultra-deep waters” refers to offshore areas with a water depth
over 1500 m. These areas are distributed predominantly in
West Africa, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Northwest Shelf of
Australia, Eastern Mediterranean, Bay of Bengal, and South

Fig. 24. Hydrocarbon accumulation model of the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean (according to Ref. [124]).
24 G. Zhang et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Geoscience 4 (2019) 1e28
China Sea. Exploration operations in ultra-deep waters started
in the late 1980s and have remained active since the late
1990s. In the past 3 years, approximately 200 exploration
wells were drilled in ultra-deep waters around the world.
Majority of these wells were drilled in Brazilian and African
offshore areas. Major discoveries in ultra-deep waters were
made one after another in the world. Among them, the two
gigantic oil fields, Lula and Iara 2, were discovered in the
Santos Basin of Brazil in 2006 and are the most prominent
[139].
5.3. Arctic Circle deepwater basins
Due to natural conditions, ownership and other reasons,
the area was poorly studied recently. Consequently, the area
may present significant potential for deepwater oil/gas
exploration and development in the future. Estimates show
that the Arctic Circle deepwater areas may contain oil/gas
resources of 30.014
109 toe. Areas with rich reserves
include the Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea and eastern continental
shelf of Greenland with expected resources of 10.910
109
toe, 9.928
109 toe and 4.880
109 toe, respectively. These
reserves account for approximately 86% of the total in the
Arctic Circle deepwater basins [140]. Major discoveries are
distributed in the Arctic Slope Basin of the Beaufort Sea,
Barents Sea Basin and Kara Sea. Oil producing zones in the
Arctic Slope Basin of the Beaufort Sea are represented by the
Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. The Barents Sea and Kara Sea pre-
dominantly produce natural gas. In 1967, the United States
proved the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field in northern Alaska con-
tained recoverable oil reserves of 1.855
109 toe [141]. It is
the most important existing oil development project in the
Arctic Circle areas.
5.4. West Pacific deepwater basins
These basins include the South China Sea Basin and
Gippsland Basin in southeastern Australia. They are also hot
spots for exploration of deepwater hydrocarbons. The South
China Sea includes the Southeast Hainan Basin and Pearl
River Mouth Basin in the northern South China Sea, Zengmu
Basin, Palawan Basin and Liyue Basin in the southern South
China Sea, and Wan'an Basin and Zhongjiannan Basin in the
western South China Sea. The Gippsland Basin in south-
eastern Australia has relatively low levels of exploration, and
accordingly, has significant potential for future explorations.
6. Conclusions
(1) Deepwater exploration around the world can be divided
into 3 stages: the beginning stage (1975e1984), the early
stage (1985e1995), and the rapid development stage
(1996 to present). Major oil/gas discoveries in the past 40
years were distributed in five deepwater basin groups
which present a pattern of “three verticals and two hori-
zontals”. Globally, deepwater oil is concentrated in the
central and southern parts of the Atlantic, and natural gas
is distributed extensively in deepwater areas around the
world, especially in Neo-Tethys deepwater basins, north-
ern section of Atlantic deepwater basins, East Africa
deepwater basins and Arctic Circle deepwater basins.
(2) Global hydrocarbon exploration in deepwater basins is
implemented in “two old and four new” domains. The
“two old” domains include the Atlantic deepwater basins
and deepwater gas-rich basins of the Neo-Tethys structural
domain in the east-west direction, which are highly
explored, but have great potential. The “four new” do-
mains include pre-salt, ultra-deep waters, Arctic Circle
deepwater basins, and West Pacific deepwater basins.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Funding
Supported by China National Science & Technology Major
Project (2008ZX05025; 2011ZX05025; 2016ZX05026); Na-
tional Basic Research Program of China(973 Program)
(2009CB219400); China Ministry of Land and Resources
Projects (XQ2005-04; XQ2007-05).
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