ABSTRACT
Chinese oil fields are spread mainly east-west across the breadth of the country in a curve starting from the Sungliao Basin in the northeast, south to the North China Plain, west to the Shensi and Szechuan Basin, through Tsaidam, and finally to Singiang. Many Chinese oil fields, especially the large ones in the north, are believed to have been fundamentally affected by regional tectonics in their formation. China has found substantial oil and gas resources in the uncommon continental or lake-origin deposits, even though the rest of the world has found them mainly in marine sediments that are "ten times as large." As many Chinese oils are often stratigraphic in origin rather than occurring in structural traps, one would expect low recovery rates because of excessive natural fracturing. The approximately one-fifth increase in oil output each year in the 1970s is but one indication of the promising future.
