ИСТИНА

Before 1990’s exploration in Western Desert (WD) of Iraq was focused on Mesozoic-Cenozoic section. As of today there are prospects for discovering of hydrocarbons (HC) in deep section – Proterozoic and Paleozoic deposits. Analysis of literature, 2 dimensional basin modeling and maturity maps of source rocks provided to identify the HC bearing prospects of 3 petroleum systems: Vendian-Cambrian (V-Cm), Paleozoic (PZ) and Mesozoic-Cenozoic ( MZ-CZ). V-Cm salt section were detected based on gravity data. It may contain all elements of petroleum system similar to play Ara in Oman.. Based on seismic data there is an angular unconformity apparently between Ordovician and Silurian deposits. This unconformity creates PZ stratigraphic traps filled with HC. In MZ-CZ section there are mature Jurassic source rocks (SR) to the west of Abu Jir fault system. Their maturity was proved by pyrolysis data from well Merjan-1. Although the MZ-CZ section has a monoclinal slope to the east, it is possible to detect small-sized closed structural traps filled with HC.