Geological Background
Exploration Special Licence No. 53 for blocks 4, 5 and 6 signed on September 30th 2007 is operated by Blackstairs Energy, and lies in the south eastern and southern parts of the Republic of Armenia, covering a total area of 13805 sq kms.
Armenia lies within the Caucasus orogenic belt situated between the Black and Caspian seas. This orogenic belt was formed as a result of the closure of a number of Tethyan Ocean tracts, since as long ago as the Devonian. The remnants of some of these paleo-oceans are represented in Armenia by up to three narrow, discontinuous belts of ophiolites, which strike approximately north-west to south-east. The outcropping ophiolites range in age from Jurassic to Cretaceous. They are believed to represent parts of the floors of narrow marine basins similar to the present Gulf of Suez. These ophiolite belts serve to divide the country into tectonic zones.
The south-western zone is represented by three basins, the Oktemberyan, Artashat, and Surinaven, known collectively as the Ararat Intermontane Depression. Their sedimentary section is Tertiary in age, and is underlain by ophiolites or Paleozoic sediments.
To the north-east, the section rises onto a regional high composed of Paleozoic metasediments, before dipping again into a large sedimentary basin referred to as the Central Depression. These sediments range in age from Permian to Recent. Along strike, the structure of this basin is complex; folding, wrench faulting, and possibly reverse and thrust faulting occur. Near the north-western end of the Central depression lies the Aragats volcano, dormant since Pliocene times.
Further north-east, a major tectonic suture occurs within the Sevan-Shirak zone, and the Cretaceous and Jurassic age ophiolites outcrop within it and along the northern margin. The Sevan-Shirak zone itself is represented by Middle Eocene tuffs and associated volcanic vents and intrusives. Across this structural divide, in the north of Armenia, the Somkhet Karabakh and Bazum zones contain Middle Jurassic to Cretaceous sediments overlying basement. These are deformed by reverse faulting and thrusting and penetrated by igneous intrusives. The section dips regionally to the north, into the oil productive Kura Depression of Georgia and Azerbaijan.
