2017 saw a flourishing unconventional sector in North America. A resurgence in drilling and asset transaction activity led to a significant rebound in investor sentiment in North American unconventional exploration and development. Why haven’t we seen a similar rebound in unconventional exploration sentiment in Australia and South East Asia? What are the challenges facing unconventional plays in the Asia-Pacific region versus the more established plays in North America? How ‘good’ are the North American plays versus those recognised in the Asia-Pacific region? This paper will address key unconventional petroleum systems of North America and look at how the heterogeneity of these plays develop commercial ‘sweet-spots’. Understanding play heterogeneity and the identification of ‘sweet-spots’ is critically important, particularly in challenging price environments. Reporting an impressively high hydrocarbon in-place number in your prospective unconventional play is the easy part. The estimation of ultimate recovery potential is significantly more difficult. RISC has developed spatial analysis techniques and methodologies to identify unconventional sweet-spots and quantify recovery potential in pervasive unconventional systems.