Abstract: The mobility of shale oil and its characterization are key issues of shale oil study. The paper reviews the research progress on shale oil mobility characterization and proposes the study directions for shale oil mobility characterization. Shale oil mainly has 2 kinds of occurrence, namely adsorbed state and free state. The former is the main contributor for petroleum productivity so that the free oil mobility and its characterization are very important. The research methods of free oil can be divided into 2 categories such as direct characterization and indirect calculation. Direct characterization is subdivided into pyrolysis method and extraction method, but the experiment and analysis processes of the both methods are very complicated. Indirect calculation method is subdivided into the calculation method based on oil saturation of shale and the difference subtraction method based on the difference between the total shale oil content and the adsorbed shale oil content, the former leads to large errors and higher calculation results and the latter can obtain the theoretical max. mobile oil content. The accuracy of the latter method depends on the determination of the adsorbed shale oil content. The adsorption to oil mainly occurs in the organic matter of shale, but the mechanism of adsorption of organic matter to shale oil still remains unclear. Therefore, the investigation and determination of the adsorption capacity of kerogen to liquid hydrocarbons and its product composition variations and further revealing the adsorption mechanism of kerogen to shale oil are the new directions of the study on shale oil mobility characterization