Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

Similarly, much of the continental margin of Antarctica also contains
sediment in excess of 2 km thick. Elsewhere, favourable offshore conditions
occur along the Atlantic seaboards of North, Central and South America
(including Mexico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French
Guiana, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina), western Europe and Africa, Eastern
Africa, the northern margin of the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and around
Australia, New Zealand, off mainland China, Korea, Taiwan, and the Pacific
seaboard of Russia (Sea of Okhotsk).
Small sub-sea basins that have a thick sedimentary sequences and
hence large petroleum resources include the Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean Sea (2-6 km thickness), the Mediterranean Sea (up to 8 km), the
Black Sea and Caspian Sea (4 km), the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea
of Japan, the South China Sea, and the seas within the Indonesian Archipelago
(all 2-4 km) (Figure 24). However, several of these favourable areas have
water depths of as much as 5,500 meters and extend 1,500 km or more from
shore, making hydrocarbon production difficult.
IINTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 722