China’s dependence on foreign oil and gas is rising， and conventional technology optimization is difficult to meet the demand for greatly increasing production and reducing cost. We must break difficulties through revolutionary and disruptive innovation. In the shale gas revolution， based on the first principle thinking method， and focusing on the two goals of improving controlled reserves and reducing development costs， disruptive innovative technologies such as ultra-long horizontal well drilling， large fracturing， pad drilling and multi-layer three-dimensional development have been developed so as to reduce the drilling period and operation cost by more than 50%. It has realized the efficient development of Fuling Shale Gas Field—the first large shale gas field in China. The author extends the first principle thinking method to the fields of fracture cave carbonate rock reservoir and hot-dry rock geothermal energy development. The application of the first principle thinking method is an important way and method for the disruptive innovation of petroleum engineering technology in the future.