As major component of kerogen

the carbon according to its distribu-tion during revolution can be divided into potential carbon(B

0

)which trans-forms gradually into the molecules of bitumen

and nonpotential carbon(N)which is impossible to have such a change.With the increasement of theburied time and depth the residual rate of carbon decreased gradually.In addition

the potential carbon so called may be subdivided into trans-formed carbon(included the released carbon M from source rock

residualoil and gas and chloroform-extracted bitumen A of source rock)and has notyet transformed carbon(B).B/B

0

-α

which is named the residual carbonicrate of potential carbon in kerogen.A further study of α may obtain ratheraccurate imformations during the kerogen revolution.According to the kerogen thermo-degradation of oil and gas geneticaltheory and the basic principle of chemical kinetics

the author has deducedthe residual carbonic rate of potential carbon and other mathematic formulae.Apply these formulae and the data of the abundance

of total organiccarbon and disseminated bitumen

it is possible to solve some questions rela-ted to quantitative oil and gas prediction

such as the quantitative estima-tion of maturity of kerogen

the reconstruction of the evolutionary processof kerogen

the confinement of the upper and lower limits for mature zones

the estimation of the amounts of bitumen generated

the calculation of theprimary amounts of oil and gas

and the comprehensive assessment of thesource rocks.This method can be applied to various sedimentary rocks

includingcoal-bearing strata and“red bads”