Petroleum geology refers to the specific set of geological disciplines that are applied to the search for hydrocarbons (oil exploration

Oil exploration

Hydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface, such as oil and natural gas...

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Petroleum geology is principally concerned with the evaluation of seven key elements in sedimentary basin

Sedimentary basin

The term sedimentary basin is used to refer to any geographical feature exhibiting subsidence and consequent infilling by sedimentation. As the sediments are buried, they are subjected to increasing pressure and begin the process of lithification...

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• Source
  Source rock
  In petroleum geology, source rock refers to rocks from which hydrocarbons have been generated or are capable of being generated. They form one of the necessary elements of a working petroleum system. They are organic-rich sediments that may have been deposited in a variety of environments including...
  
  
• Reservoir
• Seal
• Trap
• Timing
• Maturation
• Migration

In general, all these elements must be assessed via a limited 'window' into the subsurface world, provided by one (or possibly more) exploration wells

Oil well

An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...

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