The sedimentary facies,thickness,distribution,organic matter types and content,maturity,porosity,and gas content,of the Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian dark shale in the Sichuan Basin and its periphery are investigated by field observation and sampling on 25 outcrops and laboratory test of adsorbed gas content,geochemical and physical parameters.In comparison with the major producing gas shales in U.S.,the shale in the study area features in favorable sedimentary facies,large thickness,high TOC,high maturity,high porosity,and high gas content,all being favorable geological conditions for shale gas reservoir development.Parameter models were built for predicting shale gas play fairways.The results show that the shale gas play fairways in the study area occur in the Southern Sichuan-Northern Guizhou,Western Hubei-Eastern Chongqing and Northeastern Sichuan(Chongqing)-Northwestern Hubei,among which the Southern Sichuan-Northern Guizhou play fairway is relatively high in gas content,thus is most prospective in shale gas exploration at present.With the measured gas content,the volumetric method gave a resource volume in the range of 2.2-8.5 TCM and a median value of 5.3 TCM.