Abstract: Northeast China is an important oil and gas production base, and has long been the main oil and gas supply area in China.However, with the increasing difficulty and cost of oil and gas exploration in the Songliao Basin, new potential areas of oil and gas resources are urgently needed for the purpose of providing replacement fields and resource security for the production and sustainable development of oil and gas. There are 39 sedimentary basins in the eastern periphery of Songliao Basin at different scales and with great potential for oil and gas exploration, and hence this area has become one of the important areas of oil and gas exploration in Northeast China. Through the analysis and summary of the petroleum geological situation and the present situation of oil and gas exploration in the eastern periphery of Songliao Basin, combined with the progress of basic geological survey of oil and gas in recent years, the authors put forward the directions of oil and gas exploration in the east of Northeast China, which include the exploration of Cretaceous shale oil and gas in the eastern part of Jilin Province, the exploration of shallow Mesozoic and Cenozoic biogas in Sanjiang basin, the exploration of Early Mesozoic marine siliceous rock in Sanjiang area, and the exploration of Upper Paleozoic source rocks. These suggests provide a scientific basis for the future exploration and deployment of oil and gas resources in the east of Northeast China.