关键词: 勘探投资；成熟盆地；新区新领域；天然气；深水&mdash, 超深水

Abstract: Investment for global oil and gas exploration reached US$43.4 billion in 2017, while 3D seismic acquisition was 31.3×104km2. A total of 1445 exploratory wells were drilled worldwide, rising substantially as compared to 2016. Meanwhile, there were 256 newly discovered conventional oil and gas fields in the world and the newly additional conventional oil and gas 2P recoverable reserves reached 14.5×108t oil equivalent, a slight increase over 2016. Under the situation of low oil prices, oil and gas exploration has been continually shifted towards mature basins, maintaining a relatively high exploration success rate and a relatively low cost for exploration discovery. The newly-discovered oil and gas reserves are located mainly in the three types of basins -- passive continental margin basin, foreland basin and rift basin. They are concentrated in 13 main areas. Meanwhile, a series of important discoveries have been made in the frontier areas like the deep water and ultra-deep water areas. The enduring investment has brought oil companies significant returns. It is proposed that the Chinese oil companies should appropriately increase exploration investment, extensively acquire exploration blocks in the different areas by means of various channels, and step up “the Belt and Road” oil and gas cooperation. Attention should be focused on the deep to ultradeep water and natural gas areas in the near future.