Black Sea Region
The Black Sea is one of the few remaining frontier basins spanning both Eastern Europe and southwest Asia. It shares many similarities with the hydrocarbon-rich South Caspian Basin; both basins contain petroleum systems sourced primarily from the Maykop Formation. Reservoir presence and quality are the main exploration risks.
Map of Region
Regional Expertise
CASP has carried out fieldwork around the margins of the Black Sea since 2000, visiting over 2,000 field localities in Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine and collecting over 3,000 samples. Detailed field observations have been backed up by extensive analysis of rock samples, and all data have been integrated with existing literature. The results have been incorporated in reports and a GIS database, resulting in an invaluable data source for evaluating and/or working up exploration prospects in the Black Sea. Particular emphasis has been placed on documenting variations in sand quality around the margins of the basin and projecting those into the offshore.
Active Research Projects
Most Recent Reports
- A review of the origin and geodynamic evolution of the Western and Eastern Black Sea basins CASP.BlackSea2019-21.64
- Constraining the nature and extent of potential reservoir quality sandstones derived from the Dziruli Massif, west and central Georgia CASP.BlackSea2019-21.63
- Regional siliciclastic reservoir quality prediction in the syn- and post-rift fill of the Black Sea CASP.BlackSea2016-18.62
- Slănicul de Buzău: a Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene biostratigraphic reference section for the Dacian Basin and northwest Black Sea CASP.BlackSea.NW2015-17.14
- Palynology of the Slănicul de Buzău section in the southeast Carpathian foredeep: Towards a stratigraphic reference section CASP.BlackSea.NW2015-17.15