AbstractThe Taiwan Strait is a part of the continental‐margin rift of eastern China, which can tectonically be divided into the Taiwan Strait basin, southwestern Taiwan basin and Penhu‐Beigang uplift. The basins are structurally semi‐graban down‐faulted ones in character. The Cretaceous‐Cenozoic sedimentary strata in the basins have a maximum thickness of over 10,000 m. The formation and development of the Taiwan Strait rift were not only affected by both the East China Sea basin and South China Sea basin but also closely related to the Central Range collision orogen of Taiwan. In the Cenozoic, the Taiwan Strait area experienced, under the influence of a multiple of tectonic mechanisms, three stages of evolution: poly‐centre downfaulting, downwarping‐faulting and foreland basin formation. The depositional centres of the basins migrated from west to east during the Tertiary, resulting in the thinning of the Palaeogene strata from west to east but that of the Neogene in the reverse direction. All this determined the geological conditions for the oil‐gas generation in th