A coincidence of sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and structural conditions is the reason for the occurrence of more than 10 supergiant petroleum fields in the Arab countries bordering the Gulf of Arabia. Of the known petroleum reserves of the world, 60% are in the large asymmetric Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin northeast of the Arabian shield. Marine shale; siltstone; sandstone; limestone; evaporites, including salt, dolomite, gypsum, and anhydrite; and nonmarine strata make up a complex stratigraphic section ranging from Cambrian to Holocene. The large petroleum reserves are in Mesozoic and Cenozoic sandstone and limestone where traps may be controlled both by sedimentary facies and structure. A wide variety of faulting and folding have accompanied the formation of the basin and of special note are the great overthrusts with large-scale plastic deformation. Salt intrusions are abundant in the southern part of the Gulf of Arabia and in the southern Zagros Mountains.

The Gulf of Arabia is along the border and parallel with the edge of the Arabian shield where it abuts the Tethys fold belt. Plate-tectonic concepts suggest a squeezing together (compression) of the Arabian shield and the main mass of Asia. Possibly this particular structural, stratigraphic, and sedimentologic geologic model should be a guide to geologists seeking other future petroleum provinces.

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