Since the beginning of the 21st century, the deep-water areas have become the main field for the growth of global conventional oil and gas reserves, remaining in the early stage of discovery with substantial exploration potential. Up to now,17 giant and large petroliferous basins (or basin groups) with proven oil and gas reserves exceeding 10×108 tons have been discovered in global deep-water areas. Their formation conditions constitute the key scientific issues affecting and restricting deep-water oil and gas exploration. Based on the comprehensive study of the distribution and formation conditions of the discovered oil and gas fields in the global deep-water areas, this paper proposes, for the first time, the “four widespread elements” controlling the formation of deep-water giant and large petroliferous basins(group):“widespread hydrocarbon source rock”,“widespread high-quality reservoir”,“widespread effective cap” and “widespread large trap”. There are two major fields of oil and gas exploration in global deep-water areas: new fields in the proven giant and large petroliferous basins and potential giant and large petroliferous basins. The new fields in the proven giant and large petroliferous basins mainly include ultra-deep water areas, deep layers, and shallow-layer subtle traps, which represent the main exploration fields for the future. Examples include deep sub-salt layers in the Atlantic continental margin basin, Jurassic-Cretaceous clastic and carbonate rocks in the East African continental margin, deep buried hills in the deep-water areas of the northern South China Sea, the Triassic in the Barents Sea, sub-salt Cretaceous clastic rocks and Jurassic reefs in the East Mediterranean, and deep CarboniferousPermian in the Bonaparte Basin on the northwest shelf of Australia. Given their low exploration levels, these areas are key targets for near-term deep-water exploration. The potential giant and large petroliferous basins, which may already have oil and gas discoveries, drilled wells, or remained undrilled with low exploration levels, share similar tectonic evolution processes and petroleum geological conditions with the proven giant and large petroliferous basins. These basins have significant resource potential and are new growth points for future deep-water oil and gas exploration.