History of Oil and Natural Gas Production in the Békés Basin

Abstract

Exploration for oil and natural gas in Hungary began in 1915 when the Eötvös torsion balance was used to measure the earth’s gravitational field. Since that time, as a result of extensive exploration, 17 fields associated with basement highs on the periphery of the Békés basin have been discovered. In this trend, oil and gas is produced from compaction anticlines associated with basement highs. Weathered and fractured basement rocks and basal sedimentary rocks usually form a common reservoir, which is 38 m thick in the Battonya field, and more than 400 m thick in the Sarkadkeresztúr field. Higher in the section, natural gas is produced from lower Pannonian sandstone reservoirs that reach thicknesses of 56 m in the Pusztaföldvár field.

Source rocks are thought to be Miocene shales and Pannonian marls and clay marls deposited in the adjacent troughs.

Many of the fields are nearly depleted. Discovered recoverable hydrocarbons for the Békés basin as of 1985 were 3.215×10⁶ metric tons of oil and 25.397×10⁹ m³ of natural gas. By the end of 1985, 63.40% of the gas and 83.01% of the discovered oil had been produced. Limited exploration in deep (central) parts of the basin was not encouraging. The best prospects for future exploration are probably stratigraphic traps on the flanks of the known fields at depths of 3000–4000 m.