Abstract: To identify hydrocarbon-bearing sandstones under the influence of thin coal seams, by integrating local drilling and seismic data, we performed a progressive reservoir prediction workflow from our geological understanding. The workflow included the identification of sand-rich zones → delineation of composite sandbodies → characterization of individual sand bodies. First, based on the slope-trough composite structural background of the study area, a slope-break controlled sand deposition model was established. Taking the advantages of structural seismic attributes such as gradient tensor, dip, and curvature, fine identification of flexural slope breaks was carried out. The overlap of slope-break zones and low-potential geomorphic areas indicated favorable sand-rich zones. Secondly, in the sand-rich zones, pre-stack seismic data with reduced coal influence were obtained through a method involving “seismic-scale coal-seam identification, filtering, and coal removal”. Pre-stack inversion based on processed data effectively eliminated coal-induced artifacts in the inversion results, achieving accurate delineation of composite sandbodies. Finally, constrained by the composite sandbodies, the advantages of multi-attribute well and seismic data were utilized to delineate the boundaries of individual sandbodies from composite ones. The research strategy of “Inversion for sand identification, instantaneous attributes (frequency, phase, amplitude) for boundary definition” was proposed, enabling detailed characterization of individual sandbodies. This method could effectively address the challenges of poor reliability and low resolution in reservoir prediction in coal-bearing strata of the Xihu Sag, and improved the prediction accuracy by 23%, showing importance for the progressive exploration and potential tapping of structural-lithological reservoirs in the study area.