Differences of petroleum geological conditions between eastern and western basins in Algeria

Based on several years of petroleum exploration and development in Algeria, the most of petroleum production are from the eastern basins on the Saharan Platform, while the western basins have large prospecting potential but with low exploration degree. The eastern and western basins are evidently different from each other in their sedimentary fillings, source rocks, reservoirs, traps, petroleum properties and accumulation models. Analysis suggests that large anticline traps related to fault belts are advantageous to find natural gas accumulation in the western basins with low exploration degree. By comparison, due to high exploration degree and exploration difficulties, oils in middle and small size structural traps or lithologic-structural traps should be targeted in the eastern basins.