Structure and petroleum systems of the Eastern Carpathians, Romania

The Eastern Carpathian fold and thrust belt of Romania is one of the oldest oil and gas producing areas in the world. Numerous fields have been discovered in this region since the 1850s, however, their distribution is irregular with most of them clustered in the Moinesti area. Our analysis suggests that although aspects of hydrocarbon generation, reservoir presence and quality are rather similar along the strike of the entire thrust belt, recent uplift and erosional unroofing of the Carpathians ultimately controlled the preservation of oil and gas fields. Areas with the highest amount of exhumation and associated trap breaching, seem to have suffered more intense deformation due to late inversion, which in turn, reflects the rheology of the various basement units of the East European Margin underlying the Carpathians.