Self-healing material is a kind of material which can heal itself after being damaged by external action. It is of great significance to prolong the service life of materials，eliminate safety hazards and reduce maintenance costs. In recent years，it has been widely researched and applied in the field of oil and gas drilling and production. Self-healing materials were classified into external and intrinsic types based on different healing methods. The healing mechanisms and characteristics of external （microcapsules，oil and gas activated materials，differential pressure activated sealants） and intrinsic （physical self-healing， chemical self-healing）self-healing materials were systematically summarized in this paper. Physical self-healing mainly included hydrogen bonding，hydrophobic association，ionic bond actions，host-guest recognition. Chemical self-healing mainly included the combination and fracture of imine bond，acylhydrazone bond，disulfide bond，etc. The research status of different types of self-healing materials in the fields of well cementing，downhole pipe fittings repair，leak-proof plugging，wellbore strengthening， fluid loss reduction，and profile control and water shutoff was summarized，and the prospects for their development were prospected.