The Republic of Kalmykia is located in the southeast of the East European Plain and occupies the advantageous position between the Caspian and Black seas as well as lying between the Volga region and the Caucasus. Kalmykia occupies the western part of Prikaspijskaya lowland (Chernie zemli, Sarpinskaja lowland),  Ergeni Upland (an attitude 222 m) and Kumo-Manichskaya vug (downfold) .

The Southern - Ermolinskiy license block of «ZAAB Invest» LLC  (65.2 sq.km)  is geographically located in the south of the Republic of Kalmykia (Chernozemelsky district), and is 52 km to the south-east  of Komsomolsky city.

The road network is represented by dirt and country roads. Twenty two and a half km to the north from the block there is an asphalted road leading to   Komsomol - Ulan-Holl - Lagan. Ten km to the east there is a railway line to Astrakhan - Kizlyar, and 10 km to the northwest  the main gas pipeline of Kamish – Burun - Astrakhan. The  CPC oil pipeline (the Caspian pipeline consortium) (1020 mm) is 15 kms from the block, and 5 km from the block there is the "Transneft" oil pipeline.

Oil has been  extracted in the territory of Republic of Kalmykia for about 50 years. In total, there are 39 proven fields of hydrocarbon resources, including 18 oil fields, 10 natural gas field, 6 oil-and-gas fields and 5 oil-gas condensate fields in the territory of Republic of Kalmykia. The oil production is carried out in 23 fields with the initial recoverable resources under С1 category - 21,5 million of tonnes: 14 million tones have already been pumped whilst the remaining recoverable reserves constitute 7 million tonnes. The gas production is carried out in 9 gas fields where the initial stocks under С1 category are 12,3 bln  cu m, more than  2/3 of which have been used - their remaining reserves are less than 30 bln cu m. At the same time the Republic of Kalmykia has the great potential in terms of stock gain. According to the official data of the Territorial Agency of subsurface use "Kalmnedra" the initial total resources of hydrocarbons in Republic of Kalmykia are estimated in 19,8 bln t of oil equivalent  (including 8,2 bln tonnes of oil and gas condensate and 11,6 bln cu mof gas). These resources are concentrated mainly, in Kalmyk part of Pre-Caspian oil and gas bearing province which is located in the Southern – Ermolinskiy prospection area.

After winning the Tender and getting the license «ZAAB Invest» LLC together with “Stavropolneftegeophysica" LLC (Stavropol) carried out high - resolution seismic prospecting works, reinterpretation of the seismic data of previous years and the complex interpretation of  new findings and results of seismic prospecting of the previous years in the territory of Southern – Ermolinskiy license block. Only after all this was it possible to estimate the hydrocarbon resources of this block objectively.

The potential and forecasted resources discovered in local uplift of Southern – Ermolinskiy prospection area are 5090 thousand tonnes of oil equivalent under С3+Dl categories. Thus, geological perspective oil resources under С3 category of supposed oil deposits are 2120 thousand tonnes, and the recoverable oil resources are  848 thousand tones.