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Saudi Arabia is renown for its rich oil and gas resources with the bulk of the reserves reservoired in the Mesozoic.However,the discovery of Paleozoic fields in the late 1980s has encouraged further exploration in the Paleozoic.This paper reviews the salient features of the Paleozoic petroleum geology in central Saudi Arabia and discusses the main factors controlling hydrocarbon accumulation in the Paleozoic.The Lower Silurian Qusaiba hot shale is the principal source rock for the hydrocarbons discovered in the Ordovician to Permian reservoirs.Of them,the Permo-Carboniferous Unayzah and Upper Ordovician Sarah Formations have the best exploration potential.The key factors controlling hydrocarbon accumulation in the Unayzah Formation are migration pathways and reservoir petrophysics.The key factors controlling hydrocarbon accumulation in the Sarah Formation are reservoir petrophysics and the development of structural traps.