Southern Adriatic Sea. Is There Space for Other HC Discoveries?

The Adriatic basin has been explored for hydrocarbons since the late 50’s with a major period of high drilling activities between 1968-1972 and an increasing drilling activity from 1978 to 1992 (88 wells but only 7 NFW). Between 1960 to 2006 more than 1500 wells were drilled in this basin but only 150 were drilled outside the Italian waters and less than 30 in the southern part of the basin. This exploration activity lead to the discovery of more than 90 gas fields (90% on the Italian side) and only 8 oil fields. The exploration activity has been concentrated in the northern and central part of the basin and mainly on the Italian side leaving the southern Adriatic Basin in a very early stage of exploration. The gas discoveries and production are mainly concentrated on the northern part of the basin (85%), while the oil discoveries are only in the southern and central part of the basin. The results of this regional study that focused on the revision of all the surface and subsurface available data concentrated highlights the presence of other possible plays that have been partially or not explored at all.