The Arabian Gulf Province has more than half the world's discovered oil. The undiscovered potential is perhaps equal to the oil already discovered, and includes enormous quantities of gas. This mature basin is not thoroughly evaluated; it will be carefully reappraised for its full potential. Future exploration and drilling should concentrate on the following: (1) deep unexplored Paleozoic rocks (prolific gas play in Permian Khuff and Cambro-Ordovician rocks on known structures); (2) extension of present pay zones to adjacent areas, and exploration for non-giant structures associated with the giant fields; (3) exploration for stratigraphic and other subtle traps by analysis of geologic data and special seismic processing and interpretation; (4) enhanced recovery from produ ing fields and of shallow heavy oil and low-grade deposits; (5) development of Oligocene-Miocene reservoirs in northern Gulf and Zagros areas for the discovery of new giant fields; (6) development of new geologic-sedimentologic concepts to evaluate source rocks, migration mechanism, reservoirs, and traps; (7) exchange of geologic, geophysical, and geochemical data among Arab countries, and regional petroleum exploration; (8) exploration in the vast areas of the Arabian basin that are not sufficiently tested (Rub al Khali and southern Iraq); (9) better production schemes, based on reservoir and simulation studies and advanced well logs and their evaluation; (10) evaluation of all horizons in presently producing structures; (11) exploration for new oil and gas reserves offshore in the Arab an Gulf; (12) production from fields with high potential that are sealed for economic and market reasons (i.e., the reserves are not commercial by area standards); and (13) exploration in the offshore area of the Arabian Peninsula on the Indian Ocean, which has barely been explored.

Future exploration will necessarily involve extensive drilling programs, and the risk of drilling dry holes will be relatively higher.

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