Qaidam basin, one of the seven largest oil-gas bearing basins of China, is abundance in petroleum reserve and exploration potential and difficulty are dual. The basin experienced three basin-forming cycles of Neopaleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras. Mesozoic fault and depression compounding basin composed the northern margin Jurassic petroleum system and the Cenozoic large-scale strike-slip and compressional basins composed the Tertiary petroleum system of the western Qaidam basin and Quaternary petroleum system of Sanhu. The intense tectogenesis of Yanshan and Xishan made the Jurassic petroleum system of the northern Qaidam more complex. The monocycle paleoclimate evolution in Cenozoic Era and multi-tectonic movement made the lake-basin evolution, hydrocarbon source-rock, reservoir development, accumulation condition and petroleum distribution are more exceptive in character and complex in feature. In the future, the exploration will focus on the petroleum exploration in the Tertiary fuel-rich depression of the western Qaidam and Quaternary depression of Sanhu, at the same time, the risk exploration of Delingha, east part of the northern Qaidam, should be pay more attention to for further strategy breakthrough.