During the Pennsylvanian, formation of coal was a phenomenon that was spread over many continents. It is the aim of this paper to illustrate factors that led to the formation of coal seams in paralic clastic sedimentary environments in the Ruhr Basin (German Variscan foreland) during the Pennsylvanian in terms of sequence stratigraphy and the structural evolution of the basin. Lithostratigraphic sections from exploration wells in the currently explored zone of the coal basin allowed the generation of volumetric lithofacies models, using geostastical methods. These models support the analysis of sedimentary facies and a sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the successions that are widely correlated throughout the basin. We then evaluate the relation of the sequence stratigraphic elements derived from the facies models with the abundance of coal seams. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.