This special volume contains a selection of articles presented at the AAPG Hedberg Research Conference on Basin and Petroleum System Modeling (BPSM) held in Napa, California, on May 3–8, 2009. These articles provide an overview of the current state of the science. The main purpose of the conference was to facilitate the exchange of ideas and enhance cooperation among the leading experts from industry, academia, and government to improve modeling concepts, tools, and workflows required to optimize exploration and production. Kacewicz et al. (2010) summarize the conference proceedings and findings. This conference was a direct result of the previous heavily oversubscribed and highly successful Hedberg Conference on Basin Modeling held in the Netherlands (May 6–9, 2006), at which the Dutch organizers suggested the need for another meeting on the same topic within 2 to 3 yr, preferably in North America.

The substantial target audience for this volume consists of (1) geochemists and BPSM modelers in industry, government, and academia; (2) geoscientists with interest in region-specific BPSM studies; and (3) specialists in different geoscience disciplines that are significant to the development of BPSM input parameters and simulation algorithms. Basin and petroleum system modeling is one of the most rapidly growing disciplines within the geosciences because of the high demand by industry for continuous improvement in predictions of petroleum generation, migration, accumulation, and alteration. Virtually all major oil companies now have substantial geochemistry and BPSM groups.