Abstract: Oil shale is an important substitute resource and the oil shale resources in Songliao and adjacent basins in NE China are quite rich. According to the uptodate research, shale oil resources in the Songliao Basin could reach about 57.84 gigaton if the oil shale resources are counted into shale oil resources. At present, the exploitation and production of the oil shale in the NE China are still concentrated in some old oil shale bases, and small openpit and underground mining with high cost and low production are very common. Also, the present outputs of the oil shale is below the historical high, thus do not match with the abundant resources in the area. At the same time, the huge oil shale resources and the possible rich return have drawn many domestic and overseas investors to contest the oil shale resources in the Songliao and adjacent Basins, therefore, these bring many serious problems in turn, such as the outoforder competition of oil shale resources and resource wasting, etc. Hence, China should make a longterm programming, strengthening the scientific management of oil shale resources and promoting the reasonable exploitation and utilization of the oil shale resources.

Key words: Songliao Basin, oil shale, substitute resource, insitu retorting