Abstract: The petroleum exploratory practice in Paleogene non-marine lacustrine facies,eastern China proved that the source rocks in the same salt-bearing lake basin can be classified into three sedimentation types i. e. normal,alternative,lateral variation types. Furthermore the source rocks of saline-lake facies are characterized by abundant organics,with type Ⅰ kerogen,low thermal evolution,high density of crude oil,low content of hydrocarbon,high content of non-hydrocarbon and sulfur. As for the compositions of hydrocarbons,there is a high predominance of phytanes with a series of sterane and terpane compounds rich in biological configurations and gamma cerotane. The three sedimentation types with exploration cases are analysed in detail.