Abstract: Microbial prospection for oil and gas (MPOG) is a comprehensive application to find the anomaly by the physiological and biochemical characteristics of the specific microorganisms in the surface soil. Up to now, both China and abroad have seen the successful examples to delineate abnormal areas with this method, showing that MPOG can be used as the conventional means to prospect oil and gas. This paper mainly summarizes the principles, technical methods, as well as the research status and developing direction of MPOG.