The application of a multidisciplinary approach involving geochemical, sedimentologic, geophysical, and microbiostratigraphic research has greatly enhanced the level of understanding of some of the most representative petroleum systems in Brazil. Investigation of the data allowed the characterization in time and space of petroleum pathways from source rock to trap, which represent oil in-place in reservoir rocks ranging in age from Paleozoic to Tertiary.

Four major petroleum systems were selected as representative case studies from various stages of basin formation in Brazil: (1) the intracratonic sequence in the Solimoes basin in the Amazon region; (2) the prerift and synrift sequence in the Reconcavo basin near the eastern tip of Brazil; (3) the protomarine sequence in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin on the northeastern coast of Brazil; and (4) the drift sequence in the Campos basin, offshore Rio de Janeiro in southeastern Brazil.

Although there are locally important oil source rocks of Paleozoic, Aptian, and Tertiary ages, about 90% of the discovered petroleum in Brazil originates from Lower Cretaceous source rocks that were deposited in the proto-Atlantic rift. The most prolific oil-bearing reservoir rocks, by volume, are siliciclastic turbidites deposited in bathyal water depths during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene.