Continental margins: Global belts of oil and gas accumulation

Most of recent oil- and gas-bearing basins are incorporated in the group of five belts of oil-and-gas accumulation. They are confined to continent/ocean transition zones, which existed in the Cenozoic. Three belts (Tethyan, Gondwanan, and Laurasian) are latitudinal structures that include continental margins in the Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans. The other two belts are elongated in the N-S direction and located in the western and eastern peripheral parts of the Pacific Ocean. Taken together, they unite basins with 75 to 80% of oil reserves discovered to date in our planet.