SUMMARY

Situated at the intersections of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the Mediterranean Sea with a surface area of 2.5 million sq. km includes 12 local seas and gulfs as well as over 3300 islands. The Mediterranean is also connected through narrow straits to the Atlantic on the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south. Moreover, 22 countries in Europe, North Africa, and West Asia face the Mediterranean. This geographic setting has given the Mediterranean a geostrategic position in the world both politically and economically. Indeed, the very term “Mediterranean” (Latin, “interior of Earth’s landscape”) signifies its key position historically.

In the past two decades, the Eastern Mediterranean has witnessed the discovery of several major gas fields such as Aphrodite, Leviathan, Tenin, Tamar, Karish, Dalit, and Zohr in the Levant Basin. These, in addition to the classic oil and gas fields of the Nile Delta and Western Desert basins in Egypt, indicate the existence of a prolific petroleum province for exploration with proximity to major markets in Europe. Nevertheless, many aspects of the petroleum systems in the Eastern Mediterranean are little known, such as the distribution of source rocks and reservoir in space and time, the causes of microbial (biogenic) vs. thermogenic gas fields, the impact of the Messenian Salt Giants on petroleum systems, and the nature of deep plays. Some of these problems can be investigated through integration of geologic, geophysical, and geochemical data from both onshore and offshore areas. In this way, petroleum systems can be viewed against the background of tectono-sedimentary evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean basins.

Figure 1. Plate tectonic setting of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

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