Abstract: Africa has rich oil and gas resources, 15 petroleum basins developed in the coast of West Africa, with the exploration area being as high as 3.31 million square kilometers. Three sets of main source rocks and four sets of main reservoirs developed in the basins of the coast, and there are four important exploration domains here, including mature and new ones. The development and violent activity of salt rock and extremely thick mud rock exert great effect on hydrocarbon reservoir formation. Now 2095 oil and gas fields (reservoirs) have been discovered in 15 basins here, and there are still huge resources to be discovered, which are expected to reach 116.9 billion bbl oil equivalent. In recent years, many large oil and gas fields have been discovered in the salt basin group in middle of West Africa, the Niger Delta Basin, and deep water area of Cte d'Ivoire Basin, upholding a vigorous campaign for deep water exploration in West Africa. Viewing from exploration potential and hydrocarbon enrichment degree, West Africa is the most important strategic basin of oil and gas exploration for Chinese oil companies in West Africa. Considering the basic petroleum geologic conditions, exploration degree, exploration potential and other non-geologic factors (such as investment environment, politics and economy, relationship with China, and safety, etc.) based on comparative analysis, it is suggested that Chinese oil companies focus on the deep water area of strike-slip pullapart basin group in middle ofWestAfrica (mainly in Congo Fan Basin and Kwanza Basin), and Niger Delta Basin, and strengthen the study on hydrocarbon reservoir formation conditions and exploration potential in Southwest Africa basin group (mainly the basins in the coast of SouthwestAfrica), northern salt basin group (mainly the Sierra Leone-Liberia Basin and Senegal Basin). The basins mentioned above could be the reserve battleground of Chinese oil companies in West Africa, if they have certain exploration potential.

Key words: West Africa, basin group, exploration for oil and gas, strategy