Abstract: China's continental basins are rich in shale oil resources and thus are an important strategic replacement field for increasing oil and gas reserves and production. Limited by the special and complex geological conditions of continental basins, the enrichment rules and main controlling factors of continental shale oil are not clear enough, and the key scientific issues faced in continental shale oil exploration still need to be further studied. Through a thorough investigation of the latest developments in the foreign and domestic researches focusing on the fine-grained sedimentation, hydrocarbon occurrence, and fluid migration of shale oil, in combination with the progress of China's continental shale oil exploration, this paper summarizes the basic geological characteristics and differences in continental and marine shale oil, and proposes the key scientific issues faced in continental shale oil exploration in China. The research results show that there are many sets of shale oil developed in the continental basins of China; the continental shale series of strata are characterized by rapid changes in sedimentary facies, large deposition thickness, low maturity, and high clay mineral content; compared with marine strata, the sedimentary structure background is relatively unstable, the sedimentation age is newer, the heterogeneity is stronger, the stratum energy and geothermal gradient are lower, and the viscosity and density of hydrocarbon fluid are higher. The formation of fine-grained components and the genetic mechanism of geological events are not only the event information of the source formation and the evolution of earth system that sedimentary geology pays attention to, but also the key content of the study of reservoir formation and source-reservoir coupling mechanism for shale. The occurrence mechanism of shale oil is closely related to its mobility, and clarifying the occurrence mechanism is the key to optimizing sweet spots. The micro-migration mechanism is the basis of shale reservoir development. With the development of the micro fluid flow theory, computer molecular simulation and experimental technology, the migration mechanism will be further revealed. The three key scientific issues are the formation mechanism of fine-grained sedimentary rocks, the occurrence mechanism of continental shale oil and the micro-migration mechanism of continental shale oil. It is suggested that these three scientific issues should be taken as the guide, and the integration of geology-engineering research and technical research should be strengthened to make it a guarantee for the success of China's continental shale oil revolution.