Basin and Petroleum System Modelling (BPSM) is becoming an essential part of modern petroleum exploration in several aspects: including hydrocarbon resource assessment, frontier basin exploration and reservoir plays and fairway delineation in mature basins. On the basis of a comprehensive review of the up-to-date literature and experience of our own research, we summarized the current status of the applications of basin modelling, some outstanding challenges and outlined future development trends. A coupled stratigraphic (forward) and basin-and-petroleum-system modelling of the unconventional petroleum resources in the Ordos Basin is presented to demonstrate the necessity of considering fine-scale sedimentary heterogeneities in BPSM. The main development tendencies include: 1) three-dimensional, high-resolution and high-speed computation; 2) enhancement of new simulation algorithms and methods and independent add-in modules; 3) refined and quantitative characterization of petroleum system elements, including source rock, reservoir and seal rocks; 4) modelling tectonically complex basins and 5) integrated modelling of conventional and unconventional petroleum systems.