Since the foundation of People's Republic of China in 1949

several generations of petroleum man have generously exerted their efforts on the development of Chinese petroleum industry and have successfully re-sharpened China into one of the major oil producing countries in the world.Despite the fact that new issues have never stopped showing up during the exploration of oil and gas in China

the petroleum theories have been renewed and enriched through addressing these challenges.The theories are mainly concerning: 1) formation and accumulation pattern of continental oil and gas reservoirs;2)distribution pattern of composite hydrocarbon accumulation belts(zones);3)exploration and development of low and ultra-low permeability reservoirs;4)buried hill hydrocarbon reservoirs;5)research and exploration of coal-drived hydrocarbon;6)exploration of the Palaeozoic marine reservoir;and 7)thrust belt exploration of foreland basins.Under the current circumstance of unstable energy supply and sharply increasing demand

Chinese petroleum geoscientists will continue playing important role in the discovery of onshore and offshore oil/gas fields

especially the large and giant ones

and contri-bute more to a sustainable development of Chinese petroleum industry and innovation of petroleum geological theories.