International Black Sea Coastline Countries Symposium-IV, 5-6 May 2020, Giresun, Turkey www.blackseacountries.org/ 101 THE POTENTIAL TARGETS AND DRILLING LOCATIONS SUGGESTED FOR HYDROCARBON DISCOVERY OF TURKEY IN THE BLACK SEA BASIN Yildiray PALABIYIK 1 , Adil OZDEMIR 2 , and Atilla KARATAŞ 3 1 Istanbul Technical University, Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey palabiyiky@itu.edu.tr 2 Adil Ozdemir Consulting, Ankara, Turkey adilozdemir2000@yahoo.com 3 Marmara University, Department of Geography, Istanbul, Turkey atilla.karatas@marmara.edu.tr Abstract The Black Sea is one of the largest inland seas in the world and contains many geological occurrences such as numerous mud volcanoes, channels which played an active role in sediment transport, active faults, and methane leaks. In the wells drilled in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Turkey in the Black Sea, any long-term producible hydrocarbon discovery could not be made so far. The purpose of this paper is to determine hydrocarbon exploration targets in the EEZ of Turkey in the Black Sea based on the relations between the geological structures and hydrocarbon systems. Therefore, in the study, the suggestions have been made for hydrocarbon exploration targets and drilling locations to be drilled into these targets based on geological, geochemical, seismic, and gravity-magnetic measurements along with hydrocarbon discovery data from the previous studies. The geological and geophysical data presented in this investigation indicate that the oil and gas reservoirs may be discovered in the EEZ of Turkey in the Black Sea. Consequently, it is projected that the future hydrocarbon exploration activities to be conducted may contribute to the possible discovery prosperities if they are shifted to the target areas suggested in this study. Keywords: Black Sea, hydrocarbon potential, petroleum systems, oil and gas exploration, exploration target, play types, petroleum geology 1. Introduction The Black Sea is one of the largest inland seas in the world. The Black Sea (Fig. 1), which an oval-shaped basin, has a very interesting geological structure. It consists of various geological occurrences such as many mud volcanoes, channels playing an important role in active sedimentary transport, active faults, and methane leaks. Numerous studies have been carried out on the geological and tectonic structure of the Black Sea. However, the mechanisms that control the formation of the Black Sea, regional basin structure, and particularly its relationship with both side basins of the Middle Black Sea High and surrounding coastal areas of Turkey are still controversial. The Black Sea holds an abiding fascination for petroleum geologists and is a true frontier basin with very few wells drilled in its deepwater sector. Abundant seepage, outcrops of potential source rocks around its margins, large potential traps imaged on seismic data, and a variety of potential reservoir and play concepts point towards the considerable potential to reward the successful explorer (Simmons et al., 2018). Extensive geophysical and well data have been obtained in the Black Sea during the last 30-40 years. Nevertheless, these data have been evaluated by different researchers/scientists by using different approaches, terminologies along with different names for the same lithostratigraphic or tectonic units. In these