The Petroleum Geology of Ireland Author:David Naylor, Patrick Shannon Petroleum Geology of Ireland provides a comprehensive review of the petroleum geology of Ireland and its very extensive continental shelf. The authors chart the fifty-year history of petroleum exploration in Ireland, from early drilling onshore to the present frontier exploration in the deep water Atlantic basins. In discussing the regional geol... more »ogical framework the book outlines the evolution of our understanding of basin development in the Irish offshore. The Pre-Permian to Cenozoic stratigraphy of the region is explained in five chapters, each illustrated by palaeogeographic maps that are based both on onshore geology and on the results of offshore drilling. The four major regional groups of basins are then considered and for each there is analysis of basin development and petroleum systems, together with a review of their exploration history, plays and prospects. The onshore basins are considered first. Then the Northern Ireland-Irish Sea basins, these contain a thick Upper Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic succession. The Celtic Sea basins south of Ireland contain a thick Mesozoic succession and host a number of producing petroleum fields and sub-commercial discoveries. Finally, the Atlantic Margin basins, with thick successions of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments, are the largest and least well explored of the Irish basin groups but offer a number of promising oil and gas discoveries. Future and potential petroleum prospects in the Irish offshore region are fully reviewed in a separate chapter. The book, which contains a comprehensive reference list, will be of value to oil industry geoscientists seeking to understanding Irish onshore and offshore geology and to academic researchers with an interest in marine and petroleum geology.« less