Abstract: Large quantities of water-based drilling cuttings, which are generated during oil and gas extraction, are primarily disposed of through stockpiling and landfilling. Long-term stockpiling not only poses a potential pollution threat to the surrounding environment, but also significantly hinders the industry’s green and sustainable development. Based on a systematic analysis of the resource-environmental attributes of water-based drilling cuttings, this paper reviews the research progress in their resource utilization technologies, primarily discusses the feasibility and key challenges of soil improvement, road engineering applications, construction material utilization and other high-value utilization pathways. Water-based drilling cuttings have soil-like and silico-aluminous characteristics, making them suitable for soil improvement, road construction, and the preparation of building materials such as sintered bricks, cement, and lightweight aggregates. However, due to significant interregional compositional differences and complex contaminant types in water-based drilling cuttings, tailored strategies based on individual factory profiles and classified collection are required. Particular attention should be paid to the environmental risks of characteristic pollutants, such as barium and petroleum hydrocarbons. In addition to maintaining a focus on existing research directions, including the development of pretreatment technologies, optimization of raw material ratios and enhancement of resource utilization processes and product performance, the study emphasizes that the resource utilization of water-based drilling cuttings should also address the critical challenges of large stockpiles, low disposal capacity and limited pathways, while actively promoting the research, development, and demonstration of large-scale utilization technologies like backfilling. It is recommended to advance classified collection, strengthen risk management, and accelerate the establishment of a standard system to facilitate the efficient, safe, and large-scale resource utilization of water-based drilling cuttings.