The Laiyang Depression of the Jiaolai Basin is a typical Mesozoic residual dep ression.There has been little research on the petroleum\|generating history of t he source rocks from this depression for a long period,which has a significant  effect on the evaluation of its petroleum exploration potential.In this paper, the petroleum-generating kinetics parameters of two typical source rock samples   from the Well of LK2 and the petroleum-generating history of the source rocks f rom this depression were investigated based on the kinetics method.The results h ave shown that two oil-generating peak periods of the source rocks occurred in  this depression during geological history.The first peak occurred during 90-75 Ma,and the oil was mainly derived from the Xiaoxianzhuang Section source rocks d istributed only in the depression center area.The second peak occurred during 7 5-65Ma with large scale,and petroleum was from the source rocks of the Shuinan  Section in the whole depression and Xiaoxianzhuang Section from the slope area. The forming period of trapped structures was largely corresponding to that of pe troleum generation.However,owing to the structure destruction during the late  tectonic movements,the exploration targets should be the depression inside area  where the reservoir -cap rock association developed well and the whole structu res has preserved.This result will provide an important guide to the petroleum e xploration of the Laiyang Depression.
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