Maden, Nafiz; Doğru, Fikret

The Black Sea, situated between Türkiye, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, is tectonically separated into two different sub-basins: Eastern and Western Black Sea. These two sub-basins have been a target of interest for oil and gas exploration for several decades. Although the participation of the Black Sea Basin in the global oil market is very small compared to the Caspian Sea, this basin is considered a potential hydrocarbon deposit since both areas have similar characteristics in terms of source rock. In this study, satellite-derived Bouguer and free-air gravity data were interpreted to disclose the prospective hydrocarbon reservoirs and gas hydrate deposits within the Western Black Sea Basin. The locations of the maxima identified in the I2 invariants map were assessed as five substantial hydrocarbon prospective zones three of which are in the Turkish Exclusive Economic Zone. Numerous oil and gas seeps are evidence of lateral and vertical hydrocarbon migration from the source rock through major faults in the WBSB where the maximum I2 anomalies are observed.

Doğru, Fikret; Maden, Nafiz

The Black Sea Basin (BSB) consisting of Eastern Black Sea (EBS) and Western Black Sea (WBS) basins which separated by the Mid Black Sea High (MBSH) is formed by the collision of Eurasia and Arabian-African Plates. Petroleum and gas hydrate contents of the BSB have been discussed by using different geological and geophysical research. In this study, the gravity gradient tensor and invariant data based on the Bouguer gravity anomaly of the EBS basin were evaluated to define the hydrocarbon reservoirs. Afterwards, Euler deconvolution technique is applied to the invariant to reveal the depth of subsurface bodies. Furthermore, the significant invariant anomalies are compared with known oil seepage and petroleum wells. The depth values of oil trace closest to the known Sürmene and Hopa drill holes were computed as 4809 m, and 4455 m according to the structural index values of SI = 2.