Global Superbasins: Geoscience Resources and Future Opportunities: AAPG Academy Webinar Summary & Review, June 25, 2026

     AAPG provided a nice summary of the webinar:

“This AAPG Academy webinar marked the 10-year anniversary of the superbasins concept, featuring presentations by Bob Frickland of S&P Global and Charles Sternberg, both pioneers in petroleum geology. Bob outlined the geological criteria for designating superbasins, which require 5 billion barrels equivalent of discovered volumes plus an additional 5 billion barrels of potential, along with specific geological characteristics including multiple petroleum systems, marine settings, and significant thickness of Mesozoic strata. Charles discussed the AAPG Superbasin Initiative he led as president in 2018, which produced four special issues of the AAPG Bulletin covering 20 global basins and organized 20+ themed events with over 5,000 attendees. The presentations covered how exploration has shifted from frontier basins to mature and emerging basins over the past decade, with notable discoveries in Guyana-Suriname and potential new superbasins emerging in the Black Sea. The webinar concluded with a discussion of how large language models and AI are accelerating basin analysis, and questions from attendees about EOR in unconventionals, the role of smaller players in international exploration, and the potential for superbasin discoveries in India.”

     The discussion was great, and the slides contain some vital information about superbasins. As noted, it has been about ten years since superbasins were basically defined and began to be a focus for petroleum explorationists. Below are Bob Frykland’s slides on the geological characteristics of superbasins.

     Bob went on to describe what has been discovered in new and existing superbasins over the past 5 years and 10 years. He stated that a superbasin requires recoverable hydrocarbon reserves of 100 million barrels of oil equivalent per kilometer. He notes that in the past ten years, only one superbasin has been discovered, the Guyana-Suriname Basin, which is offshore these two countries. There are, however, several possible emerging superbasins. One in particular is the Black Sea Basin, which is heavily weighted towards natural gas.

     He also notes that some mature superbasins may still have significant hydrocarbons remaining.  Large language models are speeding up our ability to explore superbasins. He also makes mention of the large accumulations of unconventional resources, such as those of the Permian Basin in West Texas, the Appalachian Marcellus gas basin, and the Neuquén Basin in Argentina, which hosts the Vaca Muerta shale. He notes some emerging unconventional shale basins in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

     Charles Sternbach first provided the Exploration Pyramid, showing the path from concept to drill-ready locations. He notes that in the USGS’s Petroleum Provinces of the 21^st Century from 2008, there was no mention of the Permian Basin or the Appalachian Basin. He notes that 4 issues of the AAPG Bulletin from 2020 to 2022 covered 20 superbasins.

     Below, he introduces his Superbasin thinking toolkit. He notes that technology includes better seismic, better geochemistry, and a better understanding of basin architecture. 

     He mentions that geochemistry can provide hints of petroleum systems yet unexplored or underexplored. He notes that source rocks and reservoirs are a continuum, and the importance of carrier beds for hydrocarbon migration. Below, he shows a slide depicting possible underexplored basins where additional source rocks and subsequent petroleum systems may be found. 

     He also mentions that later tilts of migrated plays can concentrate hydrocarbons into traps, as happened in the Permian Basin. He notes that, especially in deepwater fields, the power density is very important. He emphasizes clinoform motifs and their historical importance in West Siberia and Alaska’s Cretaceous petroleum system. He points out that structural traps are typically tapped first, with stratigraphic and combination traps usually coming later. He says we should look specifically for stratigraphic and combination traps, as is happening in global shale exploration. Analog plays are important, he notes.  He also considers that there are possibilities of deeper source rocks and additional petroleum systems in existing basins.

     AAPG editor Rasoul Sorkhabi provided context on ‘What’s Next for Global Superbasins, ’ noting the classifications of giant fields, supergiant fields, and superbasins. The map below shows the distribution of the 62 superbasins, so far identified.

     Superbasins are the habitats of giant fields, he says. 60% are onshore – more since that’s where exploration began. He notes that there are currently 62 superbasins globally and that 45 of them produce 90% of the world’s oil & gas.

     Below, he shows conjugate margins of both sides of the Atlantic Basin and the possibility of new superbasins emerging.

     Below, he shows an example of machine learning applied to superbasins. He also mentions co-production strategies of other basin products, such as brine that can be mined for critical minerals. He notes that emerging superbasins are mainly in deepwater provinces.

     The Q&A explored overpressure retention in the Permian,  provided by the Tertiary overburden. There was discussion of the dozen or so sparsely explored basins in India, indicating that a superbasin could emerge on the east or west side. There was a question about EOR and refracs in the Eagle Ford and Bakken being a possible part of the next production peak. Another touched on the role of independents as risk takers. It was noted that 50% of independents are now gone in the U.S., but that private equity-backed companies are returning.