The Late Triassic-Early Jurassic rift basins of Iberia, offshore eastern Canada, and the continental shelf of western Europe are fragments of a formerly coherent northeast-trending rift system that probably formed as a result of tensional stress between Europe, Africa, and North America. The separation of Europe, North America, and Iberia was preceded by a Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rifting phase that is clearly distinct from the earlier Mesozoic rifting episode and was little influenced by it. The two periods of rifting are separated by a Middle Jurassic relatively tectonically quiet period. The distribution of hydrocarbon finds within the rift basin suggests that the best prospects are in areas where the two rifting episodes are superimposed. Lack of mature source r cks in the later Mesozoic rift basins and an unfavorable temporal relationship between hydrocarbon generation and tectonic activity in the early Mesozoic basins are proposed as explanations for the apparently poor hydrocarbon prospectivity of large areas of the Mesozoic basins.