The Guyana-Suiname Basin is located on the northeast coast of South America. This basin is considered to be the second most unexplored basin according to the USGS in their World Petroleum Assessment completed in 2000.

This basin is 1,870 miles of industry two-dimensional seismic data and has 16 offshore wells to provide a regional framework and hydrocarbon potential.

To explain a little bit more about the layers of rock and composition, we take a look at Stratigraphy.

Stratigraphy is the “science of understanding the variations in the successively layered character of rocks and their composition” (SEPM STRATA, 2016).

While exploring the Guyana-Suriname Basin a branch of sedimentary stratigraphy was used, called sequence stratigraphy. This deals with the order or sequence of the layers of rock. Three sequences were recognized in the basin.

The first being of the Cretaceous period that consists of shelfal sedimentation and submarine fan systems.

The second is of the Paleocene and consists of shelfal clastic and carbonate deposits.

Finally is of the early to middle Miocene era that consists of isolated carbonate platforms at the shelf edge surrounded by siliciclastics (Workman & Birnie, 2015).