Figure 1.  Location of the three assessment units (AU) in the Levant Basin Province in the Eastern

Mediterranean. The boundaries of the Levant Sub-Salt AU and the Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs AU

are coincident.

Mediterranean Sea

Red 

 Sea

30°E 31°E 32°E 33°E 34°E 35°E 36°E

36°N

35°N

34°N

33°N

32°N

31°N

30°N

29°N

0 50 100 MILES

0 50 100 KILOMETERS

EGYPT

ISRAEL

CYPRUS

TURKEY

JORDAN

SYRIA

LEBANON

EXPLANATION

Gas fields

Oil fields

 Levant Sub-Salt

Reservoirs 

Assessment Unit

Plio-Pleistocene

Reservoirs 

Assessment Unit

TURKEY

EGYPT LIBYA

SAUDI

ARABIA

Mediterranean Sea

Red

 Sea

GREECE ITALY

Levant

Margin 

Reservoirs

Assessment 

Unit Levant Transform

Eratosthenes 

Seamount

Tartus Fault

Nile Delta Cone

A

A’

Zone

Limit of 

compressional 

structures

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2010–3014

March 2010

World Petroleum Resources Project

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the 

Levant Basin Province, Eastern Mediterranean

Printed on recycled paper

Introduction

As part of a program 

aimed at estimating the recoverable oil and gas resources 

of priority basins around the 

world, the U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) estimated 

the undiscovered oil and 

gas resources of the Levant 

Basin Province. The Levant 

Basin Province encompasses 

approximately 83,000 square 

kilometers (km2) of the eastern 

Mediterranean area (fig. 1). 

The area is bounded to the east 

by the Levant Transform Zone, 

to the north by the Tartus Fault 

(Roberts and Peace, 2007), to 

the northwest by the Eratosthenes Seamount, to the west and 

southwest by the Nile Delta 

Cone Province boundary, and 

to the south by the limit of 

compressional structures in 

the Sinai. This assessment was 

based on published geologic 

information and on commercial data from oil and gas 

wells, fields, and field production. The USGS approach is 

to define petroleum systems 

and geologic assessment units 

and to assess the potential 

for undiscovered oil and gas 

resources in each of the three 

assessment units defined for 

this study—Plio-Pleistocene 

Reservoirs, Levant Sub-Salt 

Reservoirs, and Levant Margin 

Reservoirs.
Figure 2.  Geologic cross section of the southern part of the Levant Basin Province illustrating the definition of the three assessment units

(AU) in this study. The areas of the Levant Sub-Salt Reservoirs AU and the Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs AU are coincident, and neither AU

overlaps with the Levant Margin Reservoirs AU. Dashed line separates Cenozoic (above) from pre-Cenozoic rocks. Messinian-age salt

(between the M and N seismic horizons) is shown in green. Location of schematic section (A-A’) shown in figure 1. A, Permian to Aalenian

age; B, Bajocian to Turonian age; C, Senonian to Early Oligocene age; D, Oligocene to Late Miocene Age; E, Late Miocene (Messinian) age;

F, Plio-Pleistocene age rocks. Modified from Gardosh and Druckman (2006) and Cartwright and Jackson (2008).

0 100 MILES

0 50 KILOMETERS

NW SE

10

8

6

4

2

Basement

M Horizon

N Horizon

Two-Way Time (seconds)

Levant Sub-Salt Reservoirs AU

Levant Margin

Reservoirs 

Assessment Unit

Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs Assessment Unit

Levant Basin Levant Margin

A A’

Jordan

rift

valley

Levant

Transform

zone

Sea level

A

B

C

D

E

F

Composite Petroleum System and Assessment Units

For this assessment the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Composite Petroleum System was defined to include the possibility of viable 

petroleum source rocks of Triassic, Jurassic, Lower Cretaceous, 

Upper Cretaceous, Miocene, and Plio-Pleistocene ages, all of 

which have been suggested as potential source rocks within 

this province. This composite petroleum system was defined 

to encompass all petroleum fluids and mixtures of these fluids 

in the Levant Basin Province because we could not completely 

discriminate between genetic families of oils or gases with 

available geochemical data.

Three assessment units (AU) were defined geologically 

within the composite petroleum system. The Levant Margin 

Reservoirs AU encompasses all reservoirs, from basement rocks 

to the Pleistocene, occurring east of the pinch-out of Messinianage salt and west of the Levant Transform (fig. 2). Reservoirs 

include Jurassic and Cretaceous shelf-margin carbonates, 

nearshore marine sandstones, and deep-water slope and fan 

sandstones. The Levant Sub-Salt Reservoirs AU encompasses 

all reservoirs within and below continuous Messinian-age salt 

west of the eastward pinch-out of the salt (fig. 2). Reservoirs 

are mainly Mesozoic and Paleogene sandstones ranging from 

incised valley deposits to deep-water slope and fan sandstones 

(Gardosh and others, 2006; 2008). The Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs AU includes all reservoirs younger than Messinian-age 

salt west of the pinch-out of salt, and reservoirs mainly are 

incised channels, and deep-water slope and fan sandstones (Aal 

and others, 2000; Bertoni and Cartwright, 2006) (fig. 2). The 

Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs AU is thought to be sourced mainly 

by biogenic gas, but this assessment includes the possibility of 

thermogenic gas and oil that migrated vertically from sub-salt 

source rocks. The Levant Margin Reservoirs AU contains four 

oil and four gas fields, the Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs AU 

includes eight gas fields, and the Levant Sub-Salt Reservoirs 

AU has two discoveries (Tamar, Datil) that were used in the 

assessment but are so new that there is no independent reference as to the size of these discoveries. For this assessment a 

minimum undiscovered field size of 5 million barrels of oil 

equivalent (MMBOE) was used for the offshore assessment and 

a 1 MMBOE minimum was used for the onshore assessment.

Resource Summary

Estimates of volumes of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources are shown in table 1. The mean of the 

distribution for undiscovered oil is about 1,689 MMBO, with 

a range from 483 MMBO to 3,759 MMBO. For undiscovered 

gas, the total mean volume is 122,378 billion cubic feet of gas 

(BCFG), with a range from 50,087 BCFG to 227,430 BCFG. 

Of the 122,378 BCFG, 6,197 BCFG is estimated to be in 

the Levant Margin Reservoirs AU, 81,437 BCFG is in the 
Eocene nearshore marine sandstones and limestones, Wadi Degla, northern Egypt.

Table 1.  Levant Basin Province assessment results.

[MMBO, million barrels of oil; BCFG, billion cubic feet of gas; MMBNGL, million barrels of natural gas liquids. Results shown are fully risked estimates. For gas 

accumulations, all liquids are included as NGL (natural gas liquids). Undiscovered gas resources are the sum of nonassociated and associated gas. Largest mean oil 

field in MMBO; largest mean gas field in BCFG. F95 represents a 95 percent chance of at least the amount tabulated. Other fractiles are defined similarly. TPS, total 

petroleum system; AU, assessment unit. Gray shading indicates not applicable]

Total Petroleum 

Systems (TPS) and 

Assessment Units 

(AU)

Field 

type

Largest 

expected 

mean 

field size

Total undiscovered resources

Oil 

(MMBO)

Gas 

(BCFG)

NGL 

(MMBNGL)

F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean

Levant Basin Province, Mesozoic-Cenozoic Composite TPS

Levant 

Margin 

Reservoirs 

AU

Oil 177 278 763 1,765 857 340 944 2,202 1,062 7 19 45 22

Gas 1,074 1,678 4,559 10,594 5,135 51 142 333 160

Levant 

Sub-Salt 

Reservoirs 

AU

Oil 184 148 460 1,242 548 179 569 1,559 679 4 12 32 14

Gas 12,238 32,462 74,210 150,573 80,758 1,006 2,309 4,721 2,519

Plio-Pleistocene 

Reservoirs 

AU

Oil 130 57 217 752 284 68 265 933 351 1 5 19 7

Gas 4,756 15,360 32,066 61,569 34,393 157 328 633 353

Total Conventional 

Resources

483 1,440 3,759 1,689 50,087 112,613 227,430 122,378 1,226 2,815 5,783 3,075
Levant Sub-Salt Reservoirs, and 34,744 BCFG is in the PlioPleistocene Reservoirs AU (table 1). These estimates represent 

technically recoverable oil and gas resources; no attempt was 

made to estimate economically recoverable resources.

References Cited

Aal, A.A., Barkooky, A.E., Gerrits, M., Meyer, H., Schwander, 

M., and Zaki, H., 2000, Tectonic evolution of the Eastern 

Mediterranean Basin and its significance for hydrocarbon 

prospectivity in the ultradeep water of the Nile Delta: The 

Leading Edge, October 2000, p. 1086–1102.

Bertoni, C., and Cartwright, J.A., 2006, Controls on the basinwide architecture of late Miocene (Messinian) evaporites on 

the Levant margin (Eastern Mediterranean): Sedimentary 

Geology, v. 188–189, p. 93–114.

Cartwright, J.A., and Jackson, M.P.A., 2008, Initiation of gravitational collapse of an evaporate basin margin: the Messinian 

saline giant, Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean: Geological 

Society of America Bulletin, v. 120, no. 3–4, p. 399–413.

Gardosh, M., and Druckman, Y., 2006, Seismic stratigraphy, 

structure and tectonic evolution of the Levantine Basin, offshore Israel, in Robertson, A.H.F., and Mountrakis, D., eds., 

Tectonic development of the eastern Mediterranean Region: 

Geological Society of London Special Publication no. 260, 

p. 201–227.

Gardosh, M., Druckman, Y., Buchbinder, B., and Calvo, R., 

2008, The Oligo-Miocene deepwater system of the Levant 

Basin: Geophysical Institute of Israel Report 446/426/08 and 

Geological Survey of Israel Report GSI/33/2008, 73 p.

Gardosh, M., Druckman, Y., Buchbinder, B., and Rybakov, 

M., 2006, The Levant Basin offshore Israel: stratigraphy, structure, tectonic evolution and implications for 

hydrocarbon exploration: Geophysical Institute of Israel 

Report 429/218/06 and Geological Survey of Israel Report 

GSI/14/2006, 119 p.

Roberts, G., and Peace, D., 2007, Hydrocarbon plays and 

prospectivity of the Levantine Basin, offshore Lebanon and 

Syria from modern seismic data: GeoArabia, v. 12, no. 3, 

p. 99–124.