Searching for Black Gold in El Salvador

After I married my beautiful Salvadorian bride, we travelled to El Salvador to explore the country, to see its volcanoes, pristine lakes, green hills, coffee plantations, and surfer beaches. We stayed in San Salvador, where her family was located, and did day trips – to volcanic parks, prehistoric Mayan ruins, and to a bustling beach. As I was a petroleum geologist, with a career spent looking for new fields in foreign countries, I started to ponder the oil and gas potential of El Salvador. I was told no petroleum exploration wells had ever been drilled in the country. Why was that? The big question was whether the right geologic conditions existed in El Salvador for petroleum to be generated, to migrate, and to be trapped in structures below the surface volcanic rocks. Since there were no deep wells, the geology of countries adjacent to El Salvador would need to be examined and projected into El Salvador’s basins, onshore and offshore. Doing the analysis and projections was what I had been trained to do, so I resolved to take a look. This book describes my findings, starting with a review of regional geology, then focusing on the petroleum potential of El Salvador.