Maps showing geology, oil and gas fields, and geologic provinces of the Asia Pacific region

Abstract

This digitally compiled maps include geology, geologic provinces, and oil and gas fields of the Asia Pacific Region. The map is part of a worldwide series of maps on CD-ROM released by the U.S. Geological Survey's World Energy Project. 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. The Asia Pacific Region (Region 3) includes Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, The People's Republic of China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, North and South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. Each region is divided into geologic provinces. Each province has a set of geologic characteristics that distinguish it from surrounding provinces. These characteristics may include the predominant lithologies, the age of the strata, and the structural style. Some provinces include multiple genetically-related basins. Geologic province boundaries are delineated using data from a number of geologic maps and other tectonic and geographic data (see References). Offshore province boundaries are defined by the 2000 meter bathymetric contour. Each province is assigned a unique number. Those provinces that lie entirely within the Asia Pacific Region begin with the number 3. Those provinces that lie partly within another region may start with a 1, for the Former Soviet Union (Persits and others 1998) or an 8, for South Asia (Wandrey and Law, 1998). The location of oil and gas fields centerpoints are plotted based on the locations in the Petroconsultants International Data Corp. (1996) database with permission. Selected provinces are currently being investigated, by petroleum system analysis, and assessments are being made of the undiscovered oil and gas resource potential of these provinces. Klett and others (1997) discuss the worldwide geologic provinces and their relative ranking in terms of total known petroleum volume. For specific details of the data sources and map compilation see PROCESSING STEPS or the metadata files on this CD-ROM. Some stratigraphic units are combined to simplify the map and to ensure consistency across the region. Sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are shown by age and are not differentiated. This map is compiled using ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc.) ARC/INFO software. Political boundaries and cartographic representations on this map are taken, with permission from ESRI's ArcWorld 1:3m digital coverages: they have no political significance and are displayed as general reference only. Portions of this database covering the coastline and country boundaries contain intellectual property of ESRI (©1992 and 1996, Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. All rights reserved.)