Are there continent-scale resources to be found offshore?

The beautiful Caribbean Island of Jamaica was home to pirates and their loot in the past, but is there treasure of a different sort in its sparkling waters? Data collated for a new bid round, due to close in March 2011, suggests that there may well be.

A thirty year independence struggle with Ethiopia means that the natural resources of Eritrea remain largely untapped, but there is ample evidence that this now peaceful country is highly prospective for oil and gas.

Where in the world can you still find undrilled billion barrel prospects? Iraqi Kurdistan is one answer. But what is it like to work in an area thought by many to be a war zone?

As Iraq's political and security situation gradually becomes more stable and safer, the country's rich oil and gas resources will increasingly draw the attention of international oil companies. This article evaluates the geological inventory of Iraq's oil and gas fields, linking the progress and problems of the past to the prospects of the future.

Very few places on Earth combine stupendous scenery, recreation, and oil production. But in the central Colorado Plateau of southeast Utah, the San Juan River has carved two deep canyons that provide river runners with an unparalleled, three dimensional view of the Paradox Formation.

The Uruguayan offshore sedimentary basins are virtually unexplored. The time is now right to test the potential of rift basins on trend with the productive San Jorge Basin in Argentina and Campos Basin in Brazil.

Covering an area about half the size of Europe, Brazil's onshore basins could hold large quantities of oil and gas like their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. Yet they have remained barely explored, overshadowed by the huge successes in the offshore.

As Nigeria is overtaken by Angola as Africa's largest oil producer, is it true that the discovery of oil 50 years ago has been more a curse than a blessing? And what can the oil industry do to help?

Mali is the largest country in West Africa and yet is one of the least known to the hydrocarbon industry, with a total of only five exploration wells. It is also one of the poorest countries in the world. With interest increasing in neighbouring Mauretania and Algeria, is Mali about to move into the hydrocarbon limelight?

The announcement of a new licensing round in Colombia emphasises how the South American country is moving out of the shadow of violence and into a new era of stability and growth. Billions of barrels of oil may be found according to optimistic geologists.

New leadership, new roads, expanding cities, new found wealth and freedom are bringing dramatic changes to China’s countryside and its people. Has this also brought with it new opportunities in the energy sector?

Oil exploration in Australia has been fraught with disappointments in a relentless land, but onshore basins such as the Cooper Basin can still yield surprises.

The first oil was extracted from the Gulf of Mexico back in 1938. Since then, 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent have been produced from the US Gulf, but the area is still thought to have huge remaining potential, particularly in the deep and ultra-deep waters.

In the barren landscape of the Syrian desert you may find an occasional drilling rig exploring for hydrocarbons. In the years to come several more rigs are expected to enter, as the Syrian authorities are now actively encouraging international oil companies to acquire acreage and drill for oil and gas. The next frontier, however, is the offshore, where no wells have yet been sunk.