If you do not already have Acrobat Reader you may download the latest version here . The map is part of a worldwide series on CD-ROM by the World Energy Project released of the U.S. Geological Survey . The goal of the project is to assess the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources of the world and report these results by the year 2000. For data management purposes the world was divided into eight energy regions corresponding approximately to the economic regions of the world as defined by the U.S. Department of State. Each region was then further divided into geologic provinces on the basis of natural geologic entities and may include a dominant structural element or a number of contiguous elements.
Some provinces contain multiple genetically related basins.
The numbering starts in the west. Oil and gas field data from Petroconsultants International Data Corporation worldwide oil and gas field database were allocated to these provinces. The geologic provinces are being further subdivided into petroleum systems and assessment units in order to appraise the undiscovered petroleum potential of selected provinces of the world. For a more in-depth discussion on the geologic provinces and their relative ranking in terms of total known petroleum volume, see Klett and others, 1997. Specific details of the data sources and map compilation are given in the metadata file on this CD-ROM and in the page 4.