Geological evolution of the Guyana–Suriname Basin: from inherited continental architecture to a working petroleum system

Technical essay, Basin Evolution Series, Revision 1.1 (7 November 2026). The Guyana–Suriname Basin became a working petroleum system because four events lined up in time and space: Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rifting built the container, Albian–Turonian marine anoxia laid down the ACT source, Late Cretaceous canyon-fed turbidites delivered the reservoirs, and Cenozoic burial started oil generation about 55 Ma in the deep kitchen and about 34 Ma on its flanks (Schwarzer and Krabbe, 2009). The Liza-1 discovery of May 2015 and the GranMorgu final investment decision of 1 October 2024 are the commercial proof of that alignment. The essay links nine conceptual palaeogeographic panels (220, 170, 125, 105, 94, 75, 40, 15 and 0 Ma) to rift history, the ACT and Late Aptian source rocks, OAE2 on the Demerara Rise, canyon-fed turbidites, the late (post-11.6 Ma) Amazon loading step and model-based charge timing. It closes with a FACT · MISSING · GLIAG JUDGEMENT · TRIGGER evidence box, a reading guide to the panels and an amendment register. It is a literature-based interpretation, not a quantitative plate reconstruction, a calibrated basin model or a resource assessment under SPE-PRMS. Companion records: 10.5281/zenodo.23815989 (petroleum systems analysis), 10.5281/zenodo.23481005 (mass transport complexes) and 10.5281/zenodo.23887976 (Maracaibo Continued).