PersitsForewordThis report was prepared as part of the 2000 World Energy Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). For this project, the world was divided into 8 regions and 937 geological provinces. The provinces were then ranked according to the discovered oil and gas volumes within each (Klett and others, 1997). Then, 76 "priority" provinces (exclu-sive of the United States and chosen for their high ranking) and 52 "boutique" provinces (exclusive of the United States and chosen for their anticipated petroleum richness or special regional economic importance) were selected for appraisal of oil and gas resources. The petroleum geology of these priority and boutique provinces is described in this series of reports.