Cambrian Oil and Gas: A World Review

Abstract Analysis of world Cambrian stratigraphy indicates the presence of four major continents: Baltica, largely at high latitudes; North America and Siberia largely at low latitudes; and Gondwana, spanning both high and low latitudes. The major features of Cambrian paleofacies patterns on these continents are reasonably well understood. Oil and/or gas are known from Cambrian rocks on all four continents, invariably associated with cratonic sequences. Only in Siberia are the oil and gas probably indigenous to the Cambrian. Occurrences in North Africa (Gondwana), the Baltic region, and North America are largely derived from younger rocks. Oil and gas occur in both Cambrian sandstones (Africa, Baltica, North America) and Cambrian carbonates (Siberia, North America). Most occurrences are in stratigraphic traps associated with unconformities. Future successful exploration for oil and gas occurrences in Cambrian rocks will depend largely on increased knowledge of basement topography and of the paleogeology beneath unconformities cutting Cambrian rocks.