Abstract: The development of medern petroleum exploration the ories has experienced three stages including instinctive sense, intuitional knowledge and rational thought and is marked by the concept of "oil prospecting based on depositional basin". Modern petroleum,exploration theory system consists of 4 parts: basin assessment theory based on plate tectonics; source rock appraisal theory based on organic geochemistry; play assessment theory based on petroleum system; and comprehensive evaluation theory based on sequence stratigraphy. Different petroleum exploration theories should be applied in different exploration stages in other to rapidly, economically and highly efficiently discover oil and gas fields. Innovative exploration theories should be developed according to the specific geologic realities of China.