中国西部各个古板块在2个世代的沉积和3个构造体系域的控制下形成了中国西部古生代克拉通盆地和中新生代叠合盆地,其中叠合盆地的天然气资源量达30×10¹²m³;21世纪初中国天然气储量、产量的快速增长主要依靠对中国西部叠合盆地的研究和勘探。认为中国西部盆地的叠合造就了中国西部天然气多源、多阶、多期的成藏组合和十分复杂的分布格局,西部叠合盆地存在3个主要的勘探领域即克拉通下部层序、克拉通上部层序和前陆盆地。预测了今后西部叠合盆地大气田勘探的主要区带,提出了西部主要叠合盆地天然气勘探的领域和潜力。

 In the ancient plates of the western China, superposition basins had been shaped  with Mesozoic-Cenozoic basins overlapping Paleozoic craton basins, which were  dominated by two generations sediment and three geotectonic systems, and 30×10¹² m ³ natural gas resource is enriched there. In 21-century, most of th e gas reserve will come from the basins. In the basins, many kinds of source roc ks, more evolution stages, more times pool forming combinations and quite comple x gas distributing patterns are founded because of the superposition. The study  put forward three exploration domains, which are the underneath craton sequences , upside craton sequences and foreland basins. The paper has forecasted the main  exploration regions of large-scale gas fields, and pointed out the natural gas  resource potential in the western superposition basins.