Abstract: America,Australia and China all have many coal bearing basins with greatly different geological conditions of coalbed methane.Among these basins,most are poor in geological conditions of coalbed methane,excerpt for a few which have rich coalbed methane resources,excellent reservoir characteristics,structural and hydrological conditions,thus are successful in exploration and development.Even in well developed basins，such as San Juan Basin and Qinshui Basin,the geology conditions are also greatly different in different regions.According to CBM geological conditions,accumulation models and development conditions,these basins can be divided into mid-high-rank coal basins and low-rank coal basins.A CBM classification and correlation method system was established to perform comparative analysis among the mid-rank coal in San Juan Basin and low-rank coal in Powder River Basin of America,complex rank coal in Bowen/Surat Basin of Australia,high rank coal in Qinshui Basin and complex rank coal in Ordos Basin of China,as well as the main zones(areas)in these basins.It was found that the most prospective Ordos Basin and Qinshui Basin in China are greatly different with San Juan Basin,Bowen/Surat Basin.Fanzhuang,Hancheng,south Yanchuan,Zhijin and other blocks are only similar to the Zone-3 in San Juan Basin’s.It is therefore concluded that the coalbed methane geological conditions and recoverability are relatively poor in the coal basins in China,and effective exploration and development targets are different to find in the near and medium terms.So from a strategic perspective,the long-term development goals should not be set too high.And from a tactical perspective,attentions should be paid to analyzing difference,forecasting resources sweet spot,picking the favorable target,arranging targeted deployment on exploration and development,and controlling development speed.

Key words: geological condition, coalbed methane, coal bearing basin, home and broad