Abstract: East Venezuela Basin is a large asymmetric foreland basin which has rich oil and gas resources. It went through three evolution phases since Paleozoic: rifting phase (late Triassic to Jurassic), passive margin phase (Cretaceous to Eocene) and foreland basin phase (Oligocene to today). Vertical sedimentary strata can be divided into three megasequences: pre-Cretaceous sequence, Cretaceous sequence and post-Cretaceous sequence. Marine shales and carbonates of the Guayuta Group and Tigre Formation are the main oil and gas source rocks in the East Venezuela Basin. The maturity of oil source rock is decreasing from north to south. Oil and gas in the northern hydrocarbon kitchen migrated stepped and long distance to the southern slope edge by faults and sand body. Anticlinal, faulted, stratigraphic and lithologic traps are commonly found in the basin. There are two mainly sets of hydrocarbon plays, structural traps/structuralstratigraphic traps/ stratigraphic traps assemblages in the Oficina Formation and structural traps assemblages in the Naricual Formation. Four potential exploration targets exist in the basin: sedimentary sequence of passive margin from Cretaceous to early Miocene, foredeep of the central basin, heavy oil belt in the southern basin and offshore of the eastern basin.

Key words: East Venezuela Basin, foreland basin, petroleum geological characteristic, exploration potential