Acknowledgements

Sabato Ceraldi, T., Hodgkinson, R. & Backé , G. The petroleum geology of the West Africa margin: an introduction

Lawrence, S. R., Beach, A., Jackson, O. & Jackson, A. Deformation of oceanic crust in the eastern Gulf of Guinea: role in the evolution of the Cameroon Volcanic Line and influence on the petroleum endowment of the Douala-Rio Muni Basin

Brown, A., Birkhead, S., McLean, D., Towle, P., White, H. & Wu, Y. The Campanian quartz ‘claystone’ conundrum of the African Transform Margin

Péron-Pinvidic, G., Manatschal, G., Masini, E., Sutra, E., Flament, J. M., Haupert, I. & Unternehr, P. Unravelling the along-strike variability of the Angola–Gabon rifted margin: a mapping approach

Sabato Ceraldi, T. & Green, D. Evolution of the South Atlantic lacustrine deposits in response to Early Cretaceous rifting, subsidence and lake hydrology

Green, P. F. & Machado, V. Pre-rift and synrift exhumation, post-rift subsidence and exhumation of the onshore Namibe Margin of Angola revealed from apatite fission track analysis

Martín-Monge, A., Baudino, R., Gairifo-Ferreira, L. M., Tocco, R., Badalì, M., Ochoa, M., Haryono, S., Soriano, S., el Hafiz, N., Hernán-Gómez, J., Chacón, B., Brisson, I., Grammatico, G., Varadé, R. & Abdallah, H. An unusual Proterozoic petroleum play in Western Africa: the Atar Group carbonates (Taoudeni Basin, Mauritania)

Cowie, L., Angelo, R. M., Kusznir, N., Manatschal, G. & Horn, B. Structure of the ocean–continent transition, location of the continent–ocean boundary and magmatic type of the northern Angolan margin from integrated quantitative analysis of deep seismic reflection and gravity anomaly data

Mohammed, M., Paton, D., Collier, R. E. L., Hodgson, N. & Negonga, M. Interaction of crustal heterogeneity and lithospheric processes in determining passive margin architecture on the southern Namibian margin

Paton, D. A., Mortimer, E. J., Hodgson, N. & van der Spuy, D. The missing piece of the South Atlantic jigsaw: when continental break-up ignores crustal heterogeneity

Dalton, T. J. S., Paton, D. A. & Needham, D. T. Influence of mechanical stratigraphy on multi-layer gravity collapse structures: insights from the Orange Basin, South Africa

Index

This new volume represents an excellent snapshot of the state of affairs in petroleum exploration across the entire margin of West Africa. It is well edited and the individual contributions are of a very high technical standard. It is the nature of Special Publications that they assume a considerable pre-knowledge of an area or subject, they are not introductory textbooks. As such, only certain elements will be useful to those seeking a primer to the area.

The research presented is, considering the large area covered, broad ranging - from oddball lithofacies in Ghana to extensional structures in South Africa. Particular highlights are subjective but include an excellent integrated overview of the underpublished Douala Basin, Equatorial Guinea. An excellent summary of the link between the lacustrine deposits of the South Atlantic conjugate margins is also offered. Finally, an interesting take on Proterozoic petroleum plays in Mauritania demonstrates the broad range of risks and uncertainties involved in chasing such concepts. One small quibble is that the papers are printed in a different order to that suggested in the introduction. It is not clear if this was deliberate, but it does not detract seriously from the whole.
This volume gives an excellent feel for the zeitgeist in West African hydrocarbon exploration, which will be valuable as the industry gears up for the next cycle. Alongside extra supporting material, such as the online conference abstracts, this makes for a very useful resource.