Abstract: The first person who proposed the concept of petroleum migration is Chinese great scientist Shen Kuo in North Song Dynasty. With the development of science and technology, the study on petroleum migration has been developing unceasingly. Firstly, the fluorescent thin-section technology is in application, which allows primary petroleum migration state to be observed by people. Secondly, the authigenic mineral hydrocarbon inclusion technology is in application, which makes hydrocarbon phase state during secondary petroleum migration have been figured out and more and more clear and reliable. Thirdly, the oil-oil and oil-rock organic geochemical index correlation technology is in application for macroscopic prediction of direction of oil-gas migration. The re-migration of petroleum is beyond doubt in petroliferous basins at home and abroad, for instance, Jurassic oil reservoir of Karamay oilfield in Junggar basin, Chuandong (eastern Sichuan) Carboniferous and Chuannan (southern Sichuan) Permian gas pools in Sichuan basin; foreign Cenozoic oil reservoir in Zagluos basin, all of which have been explained scientifically. Based on such three-division petroleum migration, this paper presents more complete definition about the petroleum migration process.

Key words: petroleum migration, fluorescent thin-section, hydrocarbon inclusion, source correlation, hydrocarbon accumulation, petroleumre-migration