Abstract: The factors controlling of natural fractures development in unconventional reservoirs are complex, which increases the difficulty of fracture research.Aiming at this problem, the research methods and applicability of natural fractures are mainly investigated.The results show that the research on natural fractures mainly focuses on the three aspects of fine characterization, identification and prediction of fractures, and it is difficult to identify and predict fractures.The fracture identification mainly uses seismic and logging.The limited accuracy of seismic methods is mainly applicable to the identification fractures related to the development of fault structures.It needs to be combined with other methods for comprehensive identification.Imaging logging and nuclear magnetic logging can directly identify fractures, while the other several conventional logging micro of methods have weak responses to small fractures, and need to be combined with other methods to assist in identification.The fracture prediction methods mainly include geological methods, geophysical methods, numerical simulation methods and comprehensive prediction methods.Geological methods can achieve qualitative prediction of fractures, and geophysical methods can reflect large-scale fracture distribution laws.Numerical simulation methods can semi-quantitatively-quantitatively predict fracture distribution laws, and prediction results are greatly affected by the choice of models and algorithms.Comprehensive prediction method is the main development trend of fracture prediction method, it combines multiple prediction methods and has a good prediction effect.The research results provide important references for the study of natural fractures in unconventional reservoirs.