Khaberni - Experts indicate that geological processes that lasted millions of years transformed the Gulf region into the world's largest hydrocarbon reserve.
Scott Montgomery, an expert in oil geology at the University of Washington, explains how the collision of tectonic plates and the unique properties of its rocks have made this region a leader in oil and gas reserves.
The expert points out that the region contains more than 30 giant fields, each holding 5 billion barrels of oil. The wells here produce 2 to 5 times the amount of fuel that the best wells in the North Sea or Russia produce daily.
Modern geology identifies several factors affecting oil content in rocks, including their ability to generate and retain hydrocarbons. These factors are at their best in the Gulf region.
It is mentioned that humanity knew about the presence of hydrocarbons here long before the Gulf itself was formed (between 14,000 and 6,000 years ago). Natural oil seeps and bitumen were used in mortar and boats thousands of years before Christ. The first modern discovery of oil was in 1908 in western Iran. In the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, it became clear that no other region could match its wealth.
This region is located at the junction of the Arabian and Eurasian plates, which have been colliding for about 35 million years. On the Iranian side, the Zagros Mountains (1800 km) formed with their folded rocks. On the Arabian side, compressive forces created large dome-like structures. Below the Gulf itself, there lies a basin where high temperatures and pressures contribute to the formation of oil and gas.
The source rocks (shale clay and limestone) with an organic content ranging from 1 to 13 percent - Hanifa, Tuwaiq (Jurassic period), and Kazhdumi (Cretaceous period) formations - play a pivotal role. The folds and domes of Zagros in the Arabian plate, including the Ghawar field (over 70 billion barrels) and the North South Pars Dome gas field (equivalent to 200 billion barrels of oil), are current sources of production.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, even after a century of oil extraction, up to 86 billion barrels of oil and 336 trillion cubic feet of gas remain undiscovered in this region. Currently, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies to increase production.
