Abstract: Oil and gas exploration and development is systematic project that closely connects upstream, middle-stream, and downstream. Combined with the restriction and stages of exploring and developing oil and gas resources and the limits of petroleum geological understandings, this paper discusses the problems existing in China's capability in creating new petroleum geological theories. Based on adjusting the mechanism of oil and gas exploration, development, production, and research, it attempts to eliminate boundaries between petroleum geological research areas, call on all oil and gas fields to take the responsibility of conducting basic petroleum geological research, and created comfortable working environment for all qualified personnel, aiming at promoting the coordination between exploration and development, constructing an innovation system for oil companies? production and research suitable for Chinese specific conditions, exploring new approaches to effectively conduct research on new petroleum geological theories, and establishing an integrative operation mechanism proper to the development of China's oil and gas exploration and development

Key words: innovation, exploration and development, integration, geological theory