Keywords: 
• passive continental margin /
• pre-salt /
• intra-salt /
• post-salt /
• petroleum geology /
• Kwanza Basin

Abstract: The Kwanza Basin of Angola is a typical passive continental marginal basin with successive developing phases of pre-rifting, syn-rifting, transitional and post-rifting (drifting). In the basin filled the pre-salt sequence, the intra- salt sequence and the post-salt sequence successsively, and each sequence had its own petroleum system. Based on the analysis of the tectonic evolution, depositional characteristics and basic conditions for reservoir formation in the Kwanza Basin, it is suggested that the main factors controlling reservoir are the extensional depression in pre-salt sequence, the salt-motivated uplifting in intra-salt sequence and salt movement in post-salt sequence. The favorable exploration areas are the Cretaceous graben in the eastern part of the basin for the pre-salt sequence, the salt upheaval in the middle eastern part of the basin for the intra-salt sequence, and the Tertiary graben in the eastern part of the basin for the post-salt sequence. The future exploration target is the carbonate rock reservoirs of pre-salt sequence in the east of Kwanza Basin.