The primary reservoirs present in the Southern Chotts Basin, Central Tunisia, are located within Triassic, Permian and Ordovician units. They are mainly sourced by the Silurian -- Lower Devonian Fegaguira formation and its Hot Shale member. Late Paleozoic exhumation has eroded part of the Palaeozoic package, removing the Early Devonian -- Carboniferous and most of the Permian deposits in the Southern Chotts Basin. This resulted in a diachronous unconformity in the present-day stratigraphy and represents significant uncertainties. This study presents a reconstruction of the tectonic and thermal history of the Southern Chotts Basin and the subsequent impact on source rock thermal maturation, with an emphasis on the Hercynian exhumation. Implications on the petroleum systems in the basin are evaluated by means of a migration study. Investigation of adjacent analogue basins allows estimation of the amount of initially deposited sediment in the Early Devonian -- Permian. Calibration with vitrinite reflectance data minimizes exhumation uncertainties in the basin history and indicates ca. $2300$ m sediment eroded during the Hercynian phase. Subsidence analysis shows similar subsidence patterns throughout the area of interest since the Mesozoic. This argued to use a single set of high and low case initial deposition estimates, calibrated with vitrinite reflectance, in source rock maturation modelling. Source rock maturation modelling in the kitchen area indicates hydrocarbon generation occurs in two phases separated by a phase of stable maturity during Hercynian exhumation. Maturation in the kitchen area is found to currently be in the condensate -- wet gas zone. Migration modelling shows that Paleozoic generation in the northern and northeastern portion of the basin primarily sourced the present-day hydrocarbon discoveries. High capillary entry pressures in overlying Fegaguira shales forced hydrocarbons generated in the Hot Shale member to migrate downward into porous Ordovician units. Subsequently, hydrocarbons laterally migrate up-dip into local traps, where they remain trapped wherever the overlying source rock is preserved during Hercynian exhumation. The Ordovician units acts as a reservoir, and as a carrier bed to source present-day accumulation in the Triassic TAGI unit. A newly identified petroleum system primarily hosts accumulations in lower shoreface Ordovician El Atchane deposits, overlain by the Fegaguira and Hot Shales. Simulated hydrocarbon accumulations and projection of shoreface deposits throughout the area of interest mark a sweet spot area with significant reservoir potential in structural traps. Recommendations are given to further investigate the potential of this system.