Abstract

Ganga-Punjab Basin is a wide, linear Tertiary foredeep developed on a Proterozoic-Early Palaeozoic platform during Himalayan orogeny. The entire Ganga-Punjab basin covers an area about 3,30,000 sq. km in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The western part of this NW-SE oriented basin is known as Punjab Plains where the major rivers are flowing towards west (Jhelum, Sutluj). The central and the eastern part of this foredeep is known as Ganga Basin having major Rivers (Yamuna, Ganga, Ghaghra, Gandak) flowing towards east. Punjab Plains is delimited by Jhelum fault at the west and DelhiAmbala-Kalka ridge at the east whereas, the Ganga Basin is situated between Delhi-Ambala-Kalka ridge in the west and Monghyr-Saharsa ridge in the east. Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) marks the northern boundary and Delhi Sargoda ridge, Precambrian Bundelkhand massif and Vindhyan outcrops delimit the southern margin of this basin. Globally, the economic significance of hydrocarbons occurring within the foredeeps and underlying platform is enormous. Few prolific hydrocarbon producing basins of the world like Zagros, Western Canada, Alaska, Venezuela are of this category and an attempt has been made to compare the essential petroleum parameters of Ganga Basin with these global analogous basins. A Generation-Migration-Entrapment chart has been prepared for this basin showing probable SourceReservoir-Trap facies quantifying the values of the petroleum facies. This kind of chart is very useful for petroleum system modelling and decision making. Hydrocarbon resources of this basin is prognosticated as ~128 MMToE (Hydrocarbon Resource Ass. 2017) and envisaged to confine in Tertiary (Lower Siwalik) and Neo-Proterozoic Plays (Ujhani-Tilhar-Karnapur).