Increasing demand for oil and gas to satisfy the world's energy needs soon will force the petroleum industry to give greater attention to stratigraphic traps as primary exploratory objectives.

The procedure suggested herein for finding stratigraphic traps depends upon the development of an understanding of the depositional and structural framework within which the traps were formed. Utilization of all available geological and geophysical data, coordination of various earth-science disciplines, and testing of the resulting hypothesis are required. The approach proceeds from data gathering, through data analysis and formulation of an exploration hypothesis, to testing of the hypothesis by drilling.

The main element of the exploratory method is in data analysis, where the explorationist (1) determines basin structure and type, (2) establishes a time-stratigraphic framework, (3) locates unconformities, (4) interprets the environmental facies within the stratigraphic framework, (5) reconstructs the paleogeography, and (6) predicts where stratigraphic traps ought to be.

The exploration hypothesis subsequently is tested by drilling, and the additional data are used to accept, modify, or reject the original interpretations.