Size distribution and dynamics of oil and gas field discoveries in petroleum basins

The size distribution of oil and gas fields within an arbitrary petroleum b asin is approximated by the truncated Pareto distribution. We propose defin ite expressions for assessing the number and total resources of fields havi ng any preset limits of field sizes and describe the application of simulat ional mathematical modeling for assessing the resource structure of a petro leum basin. The exploration filter model, which is a formal expression of oil and gas e xploration strategy, is proposed. A definite expression for the filter oper ating in a given basin can be obtained from the history of oil and gas disc overies in that basin. The proposed concept can be used to predict the sequ ence of oil and gas fields of various sizes that are likely to be discovere d in the basin during further exploration.