Coal and organic-rich shale in the Yan'an Formation in the southwestern margin of the Ordos Basin are widely developed, which is an important fact for oil and gas exploration in China that has been widely explored for a long time. In this paper, detailed sequence division and sedimentary environment analyses of the Yan'an Formation in the Pengyang area on the southwestern margin of the Ordos Basin were conducted using field outcrops, drilling cores, logging, wavelet transform and organic

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... istry. The results showed that the succession consists of some units with distinctly different characteristics. Based on the petrographic assemblage and transform wavelet characteristics, the Yan'an Formation in this area can be divided into a long-term cycle, five medium-term cycles, and eleven short-term cycles, among which coal and carbonaceous shale were mainly developed in the short-term cycles I2, III1, III2, V1 and V2. Coal and organic-rich mud shale have been developed in the Yan'an Formation and plant debris in mudstone and coal is common, indicating the development of swamps and shallow water-covered depressions in this area. The sandstones showed parallel bedding, cross-bedding and scours, thus indicating fluvial deposits. The saturated hydrocarbon gas chromatographic parameters of mud shale showed that the pristane/phytane (Pr/Ph) ratio is 2.24–6.22, the Ph/nC18 ratio is 0.15–0.93, and the Pr/nC17 ratio is 0.97–2.78, supporting the finding that the organic matter has mainly originated from terrestrial sources.