Abstract: North America has rich hydrocarbon resources, and about 1/5 global giant fields are distributed here. The regions of interest include American Craton circled by the fold thrust zones of Rocky Mountains, Marathon-Ouachita, Appalachian and the fold zone of Innuuite, and the passive continental margins of North Atlantic belong to North America, where can be called North America Petroliferous Domain. Based on characteristics of tectonic and sedimentary in North America, the distribution regularities of giant fields are studied by analyzing the play elements and processes of giant fields in this domain in depth. The study displays that the settings of tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the domain have three critical periods including Devonian, Permian, and Cretaceous, which are very important controlling effect to the distribution of giant oil and gas fields. The distribution of giant oil and gas fields in the domain can be divided into four belts, that is, the foreland of Rocky Mountains, the foreland of Marathon-Ouachita and Mid-Continent region, inner-Craton region, and passive continental margins of North Atlantic, where the forelands are the main region which giant fields distribute in. The source rocks, reservoirs and seals of giant fields mainly lie in Devonian System, Permian System and Cretaceous System. The patterns of traps chiefly are anticline, lithology or stratigraphy and reef. The producing pays of giant fields mainly distribute in over 3km in depth,where Devonian System mainly has giant oil fields, Cretaceous chiefly has giant gas fields, and Permian System has giant oil and gas fields.

Key words: NorthAmerica Petroliferous Domain, giant oil and gas fields, tectono-depositional evolution, Devonian System, Permian System; Cretaceous System, formation, distribution