关键词: 全球油气资源；勘探投资；成熟盆地；新领域；天然气；深水&mdash, 超深水

Abstract: International oil prices have fluctuated and risen in recent years. Both proportion of global oil and gas exploration investment and amount of drilled wells are on the rise. The areas of new discoveries from oil and gas exploration are continually expanded, thus leading to sustainable growth of reserves in recent time. Generally speaking, exploration investment is still fluctuating at a low level, with a slight increase in the proportion of the total upstream investment. The amount of exploration work is kept at a relatively low level, but the number of drilled wells is apparently higher. New discoveries from global conventional oil and gas exploration are on the decrease while the offshore new discoveries become dominant. Moderate resumption of the world petroleum industry in recent years has raised exploration confidence of international oil companies, making global oil and gas exploration bounced from the bottom. More expectations can be placed on the future development. It is proposed that China’s oil companies should strengthen their independent exploration, focus active efforts on offshore exploration, and make preparations for the frontier exploration areas with firm confidence. The offshore blocks for invitation of tenders in the recent time are located mainly off the two banks of the Atlantic Ocean and in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, East Africa, the Arctic Pole and Southeast Asia, with the deep to ultra-deep areas exceeding 80 percent of the total. Those regions are the main battlefields for international oil companies to compete with each other.