In the Bohai Sea waters

near the Tan-Lu fault zone

the Bonan and Liaodong Bay exploration areas have great potential for hydrocarbons.While apart from the Tan-Lu fault zone

the Boxi exploration area has less oil and gas.In addition

the existing discoveries are all distributed surrounding the Tan-Lu fault zone.From the above-mentioned facts

we can conclude that

near the Tan-Lu fault zone

there is a great potential for hydrocarbon exploration.Balanced-cross sections show that the Tan-Lu fault zone of the Bohai Sea area shows tectonic features of extension in the Paleogene and strike-slip in the Neogene.The Paleogene extensional activities controlled the development of hydrocarbon kitchens and promoted the fast maturation of source rocks.Later

the Neo-gene strike-slip activities shaped many structural traps and helped the hydrocarbon migration and late accumulation.The Bohai Sea waters show great potential for hydrocarbon exploration

while to date

only a small amount of the total resources have been proved.