Abstract: With the background of high crude price, acquiring the oil & gas fields with huge reserves is getting more and more difficult, and the associated risk is growing higher and higher for Chinese oil companies. Oversea petroleum exploration plays an important role in the business of petroleum companies: acquiring exploration blocks and making oil and gas discoveries is one of the economical ways to get reserves for petroleum companies, which saves the huge transaction costs of buying reserves from other companies. Five things should be done in the development of petroleum exploration ventures: excellent judgment of development trends for global petroleum industry, forward appraisal of investment environment in petroleum-hosting countries, global petroleum resource assessment, clear corporate business development strategies, and prudent technical and economic assessment of oversea petroleum exploration blocks. The study in the above five aspects is key to improve the competitive capabilities in acquiring oversea petroleum blocks for Chinese petroleum companies.

Key words: exploration venture, investment environment, global petroleum resource assessment, technical and economic assessment; new venture assessment