This paper, for the first time, deals with a more systematic study of the structures in the Bohai petroliferous area that covers nearly one third of the Bohai Bay basin. The study mainly involves the effects of pre-existing basement faults on the basin formation, the characteristics of basin geometry and kinetics, the modelling of the tectonic-thermal history, the polycyclicity and heterogeneity in the structural evolution and the natural seismic tomographic images of the crust and upper mantle. The authors analyze the features of the dynamic evolution of the basin in the paper and point out that the basin in the Bohai petroliferous area is an extensional pull-apart basin.