“The history of exploration shows abundant evidence that new data, new concepts and
new interpretations can lead to the discovery of new plays and new prospects in mature
basins.”
The opening message on the Beicip homepage is a premise we can confirm from our experience,
particularly for the Transylvanian Basin (Romania) as a mature gas province.
Traditionally, the origin of pure methane reserves has been attributed to the classical
biodegradation of organic material (i.e. from the sedimentary sequence of the basin).
However, the gas reserves of the Transylvanian Basin highly exceed the quantity of
gas normally furnished by this source. Therefore, we state that other gas sources
must exist besides the traditionally accepted one (Unger & LeClair 2016).
We propose two new ideas to explain and explore the increase of the reserve potential
in the basin:
The idea of parallel salt and methane generation presents potential for new discoveries
in the basin (Unger & LeClair 2018).
The dissociation of Middle and Late Miocene methane hydrates can also generate new
discoveries of methane (Unger & LeClair &Györfi 2022). The Black Sea Basin can be
viewed as a modern analogy of the phenomena that occurred in the Transylvanian Basin,
as proved by the existence and generation of methane hydrates (Radu Gh. & Sandu V.,
2015).
The deep-sea salt generation idea, first mentioned by Krézsek et al (2010) and developed
by Unger & LeClair (2018), creates the necessity to revise the present basin model
scenario. The new view excludes the desiccation, fast subsidence phase of the Transylvanian
basin during the Middle Badenian (Unger & LeClair 2022). As a result, this approach
will open the way to substantiating new discoveries for the remaining HC-potential.
