Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.9,
No.1, pp. 5-28, 1986
©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press,
Ltd.
THE PETROLEUM RESOURCES OF THE
MIDDLE EAST: A REVIEW
Z. R. Beydoun+
Revised and updated version of a
paper presented at the 2nd Jordanian Geological Conference,
Amman, April 1985.
+Department of Geology, American
University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Abstract
The area under review is the Arabian
Peninsula, Fertile Crescent and parts of SE Turkey and SW Iran
(Arabian Plate plus Levant). Petroleum production is essentially
from the eastern part or the Iraq-Iran-Arabia basin. Published
proved oil reserves at the start of 1985 were estimated at 398.7 B* brl (barrels)
and those for natural gas at 869. 95 T** cu.ft (53 B tonnes and
24.8 T cu.m respectively) amounting to 57% of estimated world oil
reserves and 25.6% of world gas reserves. The region produced
21.2% of world production in 1984 (but had produced 38.8% in
1974, the drop being due to non-technical reasons). The oil
reserves are attributable to some 290 producing fields and
undeveloped discoveries, 25 of which are "supergiant"
and 69 of which are "giant" in size. Only about 122 of
these fields and discoveries are actually producing (excluding
Turkeys 30 which account for little of the total).
