Abstract: The first national evaluating of oil shale resource has been completed with consummation, which had lasted for two years from 2004 to 2006. The evaluation results were classified based on the differences of districts，buried stratum，oil yield，buried depth and geography environment in order to discover the distributing principles and features of oil shale. The evaluation result indicates that the oil shale resources are rich in China and distribute in a broad range. There are about 80 mines have been found in 20 provinces and 47 basins by now. In China, the total oil shale resources and shale oil resources are estimated at 7 199.37×10⁸ tons and 476.44×10⁸ tons， respectively. According to the evaluation result, Most of oil shale resource in China is enriched in the east and the mid area. Oil shale resource of the east area， the mid area， the Qinghai and Tibet area， the west area and the south area dedicate 48%(3 442.48×10⁸ tons)，22%(1 609.64×10⁸ tons)，17%(1 203.20×10⁸ tons)，10%(749.94×10⁸ tons)and 3% (194.61×10⁸ tons) of the total resources of China, respectively. In China, oil shale resource is enriched in Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata, which dedicates 77.76%(5 597.92×10⁸ tons) and 14.62%(1 052.31×10⁸ tons) of the total resources of China, respectively. The age of the oil shale in the northwest is younger than the southeast. The grade of oil shale (oil yield) ranges from middling to good. Oil shale resources of middling grade (>5%~10%) took 37% (2 664.35×10⁸ tons) of national total resources and the good grade (exceed 10%) took 18% (1 267×10⁸ tons). About 64.78%(4 663.53×10⁸ tons) resources are buried from the depth of 0 m to 500 m and 35.22%(2 535.86×10⁸ tons) were buried between the depth of 500 m to 1 000 m. In China, oil shale resource is enriched in the plain and loess land which took 45% (3 256.53×10⁸ tons) and 21%(1 562.86×10⁸ tons) of the national total resources, respectively.Oil shale basins with large resources are Songliao Basin,Ordos Basin and Jugger Basin,their resources covers 76.79% of the countrywide resources.

Key words: oil shale in China, basic nomenclature, oil shale resources, situation of resource, distributing characters