Recent hydrocarbon plays are actively carried out in the following structural settings: (1) Rift basins formed by planar or listric normal faults; (2) fault-propagation folds, fault-bend folds and detachment folds in thin-skinned tectonics as well as basement-involved fold-and-thrust belts; (3) triangle zones and core wedges of subthrusts; (4) zones of inversion tectonics; (5) pull-apart basins of strike-slip tectonics; and (6) subsalt and suprasalt structures formed by salt intrusion or overburden pressure. The integration of results of such plays has given a better understanding of tectonic processes, timing, and structural styles of petroleum traps, which can enhance the theoretical capability of various structural geology tools such as the balanced cross-sections, as well as numerical and physical models. A review of these developments is presented here with emphasis on the implications and problems of the structure-formation models for trap interpretation and petroleum exploration. Although the current computer models for analysis and prediction of sub-seismic faults are far from actuality, the utilization of boundary element method or particle flow code in structure-formation models derived from geologic studies leads to more realistic computer tools for trap analysis and seismic interpretation in hydrocarbon plays.
