The article continues the series of publications devoted to the forecast of oil and gas potential in the Middle Kura Depression. Systematization and analysis of published materials show that the effectiveness of prospecting and exploration for oil and gas depends on the fairness and accuracy of scientific ideas about the origin and patterns of hydrocarbon localization. The established heterogeneity of the structure of sedimentary basins and the uneven distribution of oil and gas deposits in them allows us to make a predictive assessment of territories based on historical-geological methods and a synthes analysis of criteria for assessing the prospects of oil and gas. These methods are based on fundamental research in geology, the most important of which are structural-tectonic analysis and the genesis of oil and gas-bearing structures, the study of geological and geochemical factors in the simulation model “Uniform continuous lowering”, the study of the staged conversion of organic matter in the catagenetic process and show the oil and gas windows, prediction of collector and overlying seal zones, study of organic substances dissolved in water and other hydrogeological factors contributing to the formation and prevent of oil and gas deposits. Analysis of the geological history of the first stage of research,the assessment of petroleum potential of the region. Based on the results of seismic surveys, we carried out paleotectonic reconstructions for the northwestern zone of the Ganja oil and gas-bearing region, which illustrate the maps of total thickness in the form of isopachic triangle, paleotectonic profiles and graphic of subsidence size. Modeling of structural surfaces made it possible to establish the historical development of not only local structures, but also to notice new features in the formation of chronostratigraphic surfaces, and to judge the tectonic regime of the sedimentation basin, to justify the mechanism of formation in the sedimentary cover of the Middle Kura depression, both of plicative dislocation and faulting as well as zones of oil and gas accumulation associated with them. The study can be considered as a positive argument when choosing the location of the prospecting well.
Paleozoic section of the sedimentary cover of the East Siberian Sea’s northern outskirts and its importance to petroleum potential assessment