The authors propose a concept that makes it possible at least to mitigate, if not to avoid, the consequences of an energy crisis, which is conceivable in the near future due to the depletion of hydrocarbon resources. This concept may either underlie the main track of negotiating the crisis or constitute a critical link in a more sophisticated strategy of providing Russia with energy resources. The authors hope that their considerations will draw the attention of the Russian government, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and ministries and departments responsible for Russia's energy security.

This paper gives a review of oil and gas resource potential of the North Caspian petroleum province. A new potential for finding several giants and large-size discoveries exists, respectively, in the presalt and postsalt sequences. Recommendations for future directions in exploration targeting at postsalt deposits (Upper Permian–Triassic and Jurassic–Paleogene petroleum systems) are given. It is emphasized that, given adequate exploration techniques, the postsalt sequence may provide stable and commercial production for decades. Most of the prospects are located within nonlicensed area. Therefore, the future exploration activity will have to be implemented through special-purpose governmental projects, namely, state-funded integrated projects aiming at investigation of the individual petroleum regions and zones.

In this paper, we discuss three petroleum‐bearing basins of Palaeozoic age in Central Eurasia—the Precaspian, Tarim and Chu‐Sarysu Basins. We make use of recently‐published palaeogeographic maps of the Central Eurasian region, six of which are presented here (Late Ordovician, Early‐Middle Devonian, Late Devonian, Early Carboniferous, Early Permian and Late Permian). The maps illustrate the development through the Palaeozoic of the Palaeoasian and Palaeotethys Oceans; of the East European, Siberian and Tarim cratons; and of the Kazakhstan and other microcontinental blocks.The Kazakhstan block formed during the Late Ordovician and is a collage of Precambrian and Early Palaeozoic microcontinents and island arcs. It is surrounded by collisional foldbelts (Ob‐Zaisan, Ural‐Tianshan and Junggar‐Balkhash) which formed in the Late Carboniferous — Permian. We believe that the formation of a stable Kazakhstan block is not consistent with the existence of the previously‐identified “Kipchak arc” within the Palaeoasian ocean, or (as has previously been proposed) with activity on this arc up to the end of the Palaeozoic.The oil and gas potential of the Precaspian, Tarim and Chu‐Sarysu Basins depends to a large extent on their tectonic stability during the Palaeozoic and subsequent time. The Precaspian Basin has been stable since the Cadomian orogeny (Early Cambrian) and is known to have major hydrocarbon potential. The Tarim Basin (NW China) has somewhat lower potential because the margins of the Tarim continental block have been affected by a series of collisional events; that margin with the Palaeotethys Ocean, for example, was active during the Late Palaeozoic. The Chu‐Sarysu Basin on the Kazakhstan block is the least stable of the three and contains only minor gas accumulations.