Bikaner–Nagaur basin                                                                                                                       RAS(Mains)-GS paper 1

Rajasthan basin forms the eastern flank of the Indus Geosyncline and comprises the sedimentary tract to the west and northwest of Aravallis up to Indo-Pakistan border. This basin  is classified as a  Category-1  basin  (onland) with established commercial oil and gas reserves. The total area of the basin is 126,000 sq. km and comprises three sub-basins   namely  

Bikaner–Nagaur basin constitutes a Neoproterozoic– Early Palaeozoic basin in the northwestern (NW) part of Peninsular Indian Shield. The tectonic setting of Rajast- han shelf comprises Bikaner–Nagaur, Jaisal- mer  and  Sanchor  basins.  Structurally,  Bikaner–Nagaur basin is bounded in the east by Delhi–Aravalli fold belt and in the south, southwest by Pokhran–Nachna High, separating Jaisalmer basin and to the northeast lies the Delhi–Sargodha Ridge.

A large number of oil and gas fields, including giant ones, have been discovered in the Neoproterozoic of the Siberian Platform and Oman. Further, increasing atten- tion  is  being  given  towards  exploration  of  deeper  and older plays in North Africa. This emphasizes the need for more extensive hydrocarbon exploration in the Neo- proterozoic of the Punjab Platform and Rajasthan basin. In 1958, the first exploratory well, Karampur-1 drilled in the Punjab Platform discovered heavy oil in Neoproter o- zoic.  Karampur-1  heavy  oil  from  Salt  Range  is  inter- preted to be geochemically similar to Baghewala oil.

The palaeogeographic reconstruction for Neoproterozoic and Cambrian indicates that the restricted marine evaporite deposits (Salt Range) of NW India (Bikaner–Nagaur basin, Rajasthan), Pakistan and southern Oman (Huqf basin) were in close proximity to each other on a broad carbonate shelf along the northern margin of Gondwanaland during the Neoproterozoic

 The Bikaner–Nagaur basin is characterized by the presence of all the above key elements.Further, the possibility that commercial prospects for unconventional hydrocar- bon resources such as shale oil and autochthonous heavy oil preserved in the source units could exist in this basin as well as other Proterozoic basins of India, provide in- centives for aggressive and intensive exploration for oil and gas in the Neoproterozoic basins of India.