Figure 18
 

The conceptual cross section  (Figure 18) illustrates the different domains offshore Suriname. Major structural elements include the Transfer zone, separating the South American realm from the “African realm” (Demerara high), the syn-rift grabens underlying the shelf, the shelf itself and a deep marine basin.
From the Eocene onwards the shelf started to build into the deep water domain.
Prospects have been mapped in the following domains:
Shelf: mainly stratigraphical, subcrop traps in the syn-rift grabens, onlap traps in Equatorial Atlantic drift sequence (in particular in the Late rift/Early drift sequence), coastal to shallow marine in the later Drift sequence (structural conformable amplitude anomalies).
Along the Transfer Zone, transcurrent movements may have induced flower structures and pushed-up zones (mainly affecting the carbonate build-ups).
Large but deep structural closures occur in the flat, mildly structured Demerara high.
In the deep marine basin several generations of turbidites have been mapped, starting in the Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary. The low-stand fans can be related to deep channels in the shelf edge. Clay diapirs and toe-thrusts related to a possible slump mass have created confined basins, allowing ponding of turbidites.

Figure 19  This figure is an example of a section through the Northern part of the Pull-Apart Basin illustrating the prospectivity thereof.
Note the highly structured nature of the event labeled Lower Tertiary slump. The pelagic back ground sedimentation drapes over the relief left after the deposition of the chaotic mass. This mass is probably derived from the Demerara block and may consist of mainly carbonates. The slump it self is probably not an objective. It could be possible, however, that the slumped mass is composed of carbonates from the Demerara high. Base-of-slope chalk breccias have been recognized as objectives in Italy and the North Sea.
The high amplitude reflection at some 2.5 secs below sea floor might represent mature source rocks.
 

Figure 20 illustrates the prospectivity of the Shelf-edge and the slope. Several channels (from Cretaceous to Tertiary) have been recognized and mapped. These occurs within the shelf and the shelf slope. These channels are one of the distributors of the sand from the sand dominated shelf to the slope and the basin floor, and in this respect serve as major migration pathways. Stratigraphic traps are expected updip of these channels.