Oil, gas, geological and seismic zoning of the territory of Iraq based on innovative technologies of space photography

In order to increase the efficiency of hydrocarbon (HC) field development and design of geological and technological activities based on available data, it is advisable to study not only the geological conditions of oil and gas deposits and fields, but also the geodynamic conditions. It is worth noting that during the search and exploration of HC fields in the study area, geodynamic conditions were previously practically not taken into account, due to the lack of both a theoretical basis and a reliable methodology. The research studies the geodynamic conditions of the territory of Iraq and the adjacent states. The study was conducted to identify the most promising areas for the development of HC fields based on oil and gas geological zoning. The research methodology is based on well-established methods of group geological survey, system-aerospace methods in combination with geophysical methods and virtually unknown methods of geodynamic analysis, ore-oil- and-gas-geological zoning, structural-metric method and method of interpretation of central-type structures and lineaments with allocation of geodynamic centers, compression and extension (vacuum) zones, interference zones and subvertical destruction zones. The initial materials for conducting scientific research are primarily space images of various scales, physical-geographical maps, topographic maps, structural maps and seismic activity maps, as well as flow rate maps of production wells or cumulative oil and gas production. The work provides brief comments on the compiled multi-scale maps-schemes, to which the territory of Iraq is confined and the identified promising areas for prospecting, exploration and even development of mineral deposits (especially oil and gas) and specific locations of possible catastrophic earthquakes.

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