Abstract: The East China Sea Shelf Basin is an important Meso-Cenozoic superimposed petroliferous basin with good prospects for oil and gas exploration. Based on the geological and geophysical surveys carried out in the past 10 years, we made a summarization of the Meso-Cenozoic stratigraphy, tectonic characteristics and evolution of the basin in this paper. The Cenozoic and Mesozoic hydrocarbon accumulation conditions and prospects are carefully studied.It is deduced that the Jilong Sag shall be the Cenozoic hydrocarbon exploration target for next breakthrough, the Xihu Sag has favorable geological conditions and exploration prospects for deep basin gas reservoir, and the Minjiang Sag as well as the southern Jilong Sag is the tectonic unit favorable for Mesozoic oil and gas exploration.