Abstract: The North Carnarvon Basin is the premier oil and gas producing basin in Australia and one of the world-class gas-rich basins.It experienced pre-rifting,early rifting,late rifting,and post-rifting passive margin development stages.The basin was filled with about 15 km thick sediments,which are overwhelmingly dominated by the Mesozoic.Four sets of source rocks were developed in the Triassic-Lower Cretaceous succession.Oil,condensate and gas are mainly reservoired in the Upper Triassic,Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous.Regionally,oil is mostly distributed in the Barrow and Dampier Sub-basins whereas the Exmouth Plateau and Rankin Platform contain bulk of the condensate and gas.By the end of 2004,5.27×10⁸ tonnes of oil and 28 424×10⁸ m³ of gas had been discovered in the basin.Integrated petroleum geological analyses indicate that the basin has a considerable hydrocarbon prospectivity.The moderately explored Exmouth Plateau,Exmouth Sub-basin and Beagle Sub-basin comprise the most promising areas with the best exploration potential.