This special issue contains a thematic set of papers arising from a conference entitled ‘Second Arabian Plate Geology Workshop: Albian–Cenomanian–Turonian Carbonate-Siliciclastic systems of the Arabian Plate’, organized by the EAGE in Abu Dhabi in January 2010. Full conference abstracts are published in GeoArabia (2010, Vol. 15, No. 1). The meeting followed a very successful First Arabian Plate Geology Workshop in Oman in 2008, which focused upon Barremian to Aptian systems (van Buchem et al . 2010). A key recommendation from that meeting was that subsequent workshops should be broadened to consider the impact of stratigraphy on patterns of diagenesis and, ultimately, on reservoir performance. Consequently, the Albian–Cenomanian–Turonian Workshop concentrated not just on unification of stratigraphic nomenclature, but also on the relationship between sedimentation, structural style, diagenesis and their impact on hydrocarbon entrapment and production. The Albian–Cenomanian–Turonian interval is one of the most important petroleum systems on the Arabian Plate. Large volumes of hydrocarbon are hosted within clastic (mostly Albian) and carbonate (largely Cenomanian–Turonian) reservoirs in Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Iran and Iraq. The fine-grained siliciclastic sediments of the early Albian form regional seals to the underlying Aptian reservoirs, whilst the organic-rich mudstones deposited in Albian and Cenomanian intrashelf basins (e.g. Natih B Formation, Oman; Kazhdumi Formation, Iran) are important hydrocarbon source rocks. Compressional tectonism, initiated in the latest Cenomanian to early Turonian with the partial closure of Neotethys, and completed in the early Tertiary, was responsible for the formation of the main hydrocarbon traps in the region and for triggering hydrocarbon maturation and migration. Margin-proximal areas (i.e. Zagros Simply Folded belt in Iran and Iraq) are characterized by the development of short wavelength, often asymmetric anticlinal traps, whilst areas distal to the margin (i.e. Mesopotamian foreland basin of Iraq and Arabian Plate in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi …