Arguments are provided to substantiate relationship between the beds from the Devonian-Lower Carboniferous and the Visean petroleum complexes in the Stepnovskij swell and the wash-out zone (from the Timanskian to the Vorobyevskian beds) of the underlying Eifelian-Lower Frasnian complex. The data on the compositions of oils and free gases is used to show the presence of a lateral migration flow from the Pricaspian Depression to the southern and the southwestern areas of the Volga-Ural petroleum province. Considered is confinement of the traps in the Eifelian-Lower Frasnian complex to disjunctive dislocations screening migration from the Pricaspian Depression. This was used as the basis for outlining priority exploration trends within the Stepnovskij composite swell