Monograph . Baku . Posts Tagged ‘Nafta-Press’ 2003. - 127 s. The Caspian region is characterized by the development within its boundaries of two oil and gas basins (South Caspian and Middle Caspian) and part of the area of two more basins (North Ustyurt and North Caspian). The total prospective area for oil and gas exploration works is about 760 thousand. km2. The sediment cover of the basins is differentiated into six oil and gas-bearing systems, which are unevenly distributed in the area of the region: Pliocene-quaternary; Oligocene-Miocene; Cretaceous-Eocene; Jurassic; Upper Permian-Triassic; Devonian-Lower Permian. The analysis is based on extensive factual material of drilling data and marine seismic work, gravimetric survey. The estimation of the density distribution of the initial potential hydrocarbon resources was carried out according to the original method , which took into account for each system the ratio between the density of proven hydrocarbon reserves at reference sites (known zones of oil and gas accumulation) and a number of parameters of oil and gas carrying capacity : power, speed and paleogeographical conditions of sedimentation, thermal regime, type and degree of metamorphism of organic matter, physical properties of reservoir rocks . The total density of potential resources has 10 gradations and varies from more than 720 to 10 thousand . t. n. e. /km2. Total value of resources exceeds 90 billion. t. at. t.