The XIII Congress was held in Santa Marta in the Caribbean coast of Colombia between 12 and 15 November 2012 as part of a biennial series that started in 1988 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Then followed Caracas (Venezuela), Manaus (Brazil), Bucaramanga (Colombia),Cancun (Mexico), Isla Margarita (Venezuela), Foz de Iguazú (Brazil), Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), Mérida (Mexico), Salvador de Bahía (Brazil), Isla Margarita Venezuela),Montevideo (Uruguay), Santa Marta and recently Búzios (Brazil) in November 2014. The talks were divided between 6 plenary sessions from Tuesday through to Thursday: 1- Basin Analysis and Conventional Petroleum System (2 essions, 18 talks), 2- Hydrocarbons Biodegradation, Forensic Geochemistry and Biochemistry (8), 3- Non-Conventional Petroleum Systems (9), 4- Advances in Analytical Techniques and New Applications in Organic Geochemistry (8), 5- Coal characterization and Fine Facies Sedimentation Modelling (8). Six conferences of 40 minutes each took place at the beginning of each session.