本文概述国外油气地球化学勘查的现状。在油气化探基础理论研究方面，国外学者提出了一些新的概念和认识。Ｍ．Ｄ．Ｍａｔｔｈｅｗｓ认为烃类迁移机制可分为弥散式和会聚式２类，并着重探讨了烃类通过会聚式迁移到达近地表时，其渗逸速率、气泡效应、分散相的成分和性质等对近地表层和水柱中烃类背景水平及异常形成的影响。Ｒ．Ｔｏｍｐｋｉｎｓ提出了油气藏地层电池和氧化还原房概念。有的学者对某些具体化探方法的原理提出了新的认识，如汞烃共生说等等。在油气化探应用效果方面，国外大量实例说明，应用非常规物化探之后，预测成功率明显提高，综合油气勘查是今后油气勘探的发展方向。近年有的学者将化探的微生物法扩展到储层研究，较准确地了解地下储层的性质与动态。油气化探技术虽然取得了重要进展，但在诸如烃类迁移机制、干扰因素的影响、应用领域的扩展等等问题上还有待进一步探讨和研究。 This article summarizes the current status of overseas oil and gas geochemical exploration. In the basic theory of oil and gas geochemical exploration, foreign scholars put forward some new concepts and understanding. M. D. Matthews believes that the mechanism of hydrocarbon migration can be divided into two types of dispersion and convergence, and focused on the hydrocarbon migration through the convergence near the surface, its rate of flow, bubble effect, the composition and nature of the dispersed phase of the near surface Hydrocarbon background levels and abnormal formation in layers and water columns. R. Tompkins proposed the concept of reservoir cells and redox houses. Some scholars have put forward some new understandings on the principle of some specific geochemical exploration methods, such as mercury-hydrocarbon symbiosis and so on. In the application of oil and gas geochemical exploration, a large number of foreign examples show that the application of unconventional geochemical exploration, the prediction success rate increased significantly, integrated oil and gas exploration is the future direction of development of oil and gas exploration. In recent years, some scholars extended the geochemical exploration of microbiological methods to reservoir research to get a more accurate understanding of the nature and dynamics of underground reservoirs. Although significant progress has been made in the geochemical exploration of oil and gas, there are still some issues to be further explored and studied in such issues as the mechanism of hydrocarbon migration, the influence of disturbing factors and the expansion of application fields.