Abstract: A series of sedimentary basins were formed between eastern Andes folded belt and Guyana shield. The history of tectonic evolution can be divided into three stages: the Palaeozoic craton margin stage, the Mesozoic back-arc rifting or continental marginal rifting stage and the Cenozoic back-arc foreland stage. The main hydrocarbon source rocks are the Cretaceous marine shale and carbonate rocks. The Cretaceous and Tertiary reservoirs dominated by sandstone are developed. The Cretaceous dark mud formed in rifting stage and the Paleogene mud can be the good cap rocks, which constitute two sets of reservoir-cap assemblages vertically: passive continental margin and foreland sequence. The structural traps are developed in pediment folded belt and the discovered reservoirs are large in size. The fluids in them are mainly oil, light oil and gas. Various trap types, such as structural trap and stratigraphic trap, are developed in the slope belt where the discovered reservoirs are small and the fluids are mainly heavy oil and super-heavy oil. High quality and mature hydrocarbon source rocks are the main controlling factors for oil and gas accumulation. The traps formed in the main orogenic episodes are the most advantageous to capture oil and gas. The high quality reservoirs and faults consist of hydrocarbon migration passage systems. The destruction of tectonism and washing effect cause the formation of the heavy oil reservoirs in the slope belt.

Key words: South America, Andesian movement, foreland basin, reservoir, structural feature