The North Caspian oil-gas province is located on the southeastern margin of the East European craton. It extends over an area of more than 500,000 sq km. The Lower Permian Kungurian salt complex of this depression consists largely of salt but also contains lenses of anhydrite, clastics, and carbonate. Original thickness is estimated at 2-3 km; however,it has flowed plastically into some 1200 salt structures. This salt is theseal for pools in the underlying section and is the main factor for trapping hydrocarbons in the section above the salt (Gabrielyants and others, 1991). During the last two decades new types of salt-related traps have been described, thereby broadening prospects for oil and gas. Bedded salt conformable with the enclosing rocks is found in the border areas of the depression. Thickness there ranges from tens of meters to 200-300 m, and anhydrite is common. Height of salt domes ranges from 500-1000 m on the borders of the depression to 8-9 km in the central part. The North Caspian depression has practically no solitary domes. On the whole they combine into salt ridges or merge into single gigantic domes. Three types of domes are recognized: non-piercing, crypto-piercing, and piercing. The non-piercing domes have caused weak deformation of the overlying Triassic rocks. The Triassic-Cenozoic section is preserved above these domes. The crypto-piercing domes penetrate to various stratigraphic levels of the Mesozoic. The Triassic is absent in places with Jurassic resting on the salt. Crests of piercing domes typically subcrop beneath the Neogene cover or penetrate to the surface. Traps associated with these salt domes are classified as supra-dome, peripheral, flank, sub-cornice, and infra-dome. The supra-dome structures are those associated with the upper surface of the dome from its highest part to the boundary where the flank plunges into inter-domal space. The peripheral features are highs located along the margins of a dome above a steep flank but still above the top of the dome. In spite of limited reserves, peripheral traps qualify as supplemental targets in fields where the main production is from other types of traps. Two classes of structure occur on the flanks of domes: traps beneath tongues of salt that extend out from the dome (cornices) and beds that abut up dip against the salt. The infra-dome traps are in reservoir rock that is included between salt beds of different age. In the border areas of the depression where the salt occurs as a blanket, the salt beds and overlying sediments level out the relief on the sub-salt complex, thereby creating traps. Such traps are common in the southern part of the depression. Traps related to faults along the border of the depression are small and have low closures. Non-piercing domes in the border areas of the depression form anticlines that range in size from 2 by 1 km to 6 by 3 km. They are host to pools with significant reserves; however, their number is small. Such traps are probably present offshore on a continuation of the Prorva arch. The piercing domes on the whole have broad crests with no well expressed outline - "spilling out" toward the periphery of the dome. Unconformities are commonly associated with these features. Other traps are associated with salt ridges that connect salt domes (Petroleum Geology, vol. 29, no. 3/4, 1995). Copyright 2000 James Clarke. You are encouraged to download this News Letter and to forward it to others. Earlier News Letters are available at our website http://geocities.com/internetgeology/