The article provides a rationale for clarifying or revising the working version of the oil and gas geological zoning of the offshore part of the Terek-Caspian trough, the accuracy of which determines the success of further oil and gas exploration here. A fundamentally new scheme of oil and gas geological zoning of the Terek-Caspian trough (linked to its land and offshore parts) was proposed, which was developed on a structural-geodynamic basis and does not contradict generally accepted ideas about the features of the regional geological structure, the spatial distribution of oil and gas potential and the latest geodynamic development of the territory. The scheme and dynamic characteristics of the main deep faults of the northwestern and northeastern orientations, showing a high neotectonic activity within the limits of the studied trough, are given. Particular attention is paid to the less studied northeastern fault system, which, along with the fault system of north-west orientation, has played an important role in the Terek-Caspian trough structure formation. Within the limits of the trough, five parallel linearly elongated narrow zones of oil and gas accumulation of the common Caucasian strike are distinguished, where all hydrocarbon deposits estimated on land and shelf and local elevations (structural noses), promising for oil and gas, are concentrated. Each of the selected zones of oil and gas accumulation consists of three subzones, displaced relative to each other at the intersection with faults of the northeast orientation (fault-shifts). Some of the selected subzones within the edge of platform of the trough are potentially petroleum-bearing ones. Fundamentally new ideas in structural and petroleum bearing relation touch upon the eastern part of the Terek-Caspian trough (Dagestan salient, Terek-Sulak depression and its offshore continuation).
The new version of the scheme of oil and gas geological zoning of the land and offshore parts of the Terek-Caspian trough is a scientifically based alternative to the working version of the oil and gas geological zoning, in particular, of the offshore part of the trough and can change the strategy of carrying out of oil and gas exploration in this area.
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