Abstract:

Different people have different views on petroleum exploration success or failure.But during the exploration process,geologists couldn't help feeling blue.Their pessimistic moods often occur in the period after achieving a major breakthrough and before getting on a fast track of discovery in an oil region.There are three reasons for this mood:incomprehensive understanding of petroleum distributions and inappropriate choices of exploration technologies;weak mastery of petroleum exploration patterns apart from the geological rules;and geologists'fixed thinking modes always preventing them from cutting down deeper into the researches because of an inherent weakness of overestimating their knowledge.

Key words: exploration success or failure, success rate, recognition, petroleum exploration