Zulia Oriental is located in the eastern onshore part of the Maracaibo basin, western Venezuela. During the last eighty years the area has been a prolific producer of hydrocarbons specially heavy oil, but almost all the production has come from the upper shallow Miocene section.

Recently a multidisciplinary study has been completed with a view to expanding the exploration frontier to stratigraphic intervals below the Miocene, both, within and outside of traditional oil fields in the area. Twenty two wells were used for modeling and sedimentological analysis, new seismic surveys shot in 1991 and 1995 with better resolution and surface geochemical data.

The analysis shows that the oil generation and migration process in the area ocurred early in the lower to middle Eocene from an upper Cretaceous source rock (La Luna Formation). Traps formed due to tectonic events before and during this interval of time were charged, preserving porosities and retarding later destructive diagenesis.

This study demonstrates the existence of structural and stratigraphic exploration leads and prospects not only in frontier areas but also beneath traditional oil fields in the stratigraphic section between the lower Cretaceous and the top Eocene. The study indicates that Zulia Oriental has a potential of discovering up to 2,600 millions of barrels of medium to light oil.