Nearly30years ofdevelopmenthas expanded the research scope of the organic geochem istry in China from the petroleum exploration to key research domains such as coal，biology，environment and climate.Its great contribution to the econom ic growth and social advancement of the country has showed its strong vitality.In the Twelfth National Conference on Organic Geochem istry，breakthrough has been made in the researches of deep hydrocarbon fluid properties，tight sand gas and shale gas reservoiring，biochem ical characters of permanent organic pollutes，etc.The direction for the discipline is therefore further clarified.At present and for a period of time to come，the research of the disciplinewould be focused on①technologies for analyzing and predicting the formation and distribution of organicˉrich sediments;②the development ofmodels that integrate geochem istry with geology;③the interaction of nonorganic and organic matters aswell as the secondary alteration and transˉformation of hydrocarbonˉbearing deposits;④the mechanism，potential，and distribution of natural gas with difˉferent origins;and⑤the geochem istry of environment，coal，and biology.The conference proposes that①stress should be put on the repeatability of experimental data，the reliability of experimentalmethods and the comparaˉbility of experimental results;and②that the geochem istry research in China should follow closely the internaˉtional lead，bemore creative，blaze a trail for a integrated research of organic geochem istry and geology，and play 266
