Notes on the Discovery of Daqing Oilfield

"On the Songhua River", a tragic, majestic and exciting anti-Japanese war song, is people's favorite song. "On the Songhua River in Northeast China...there are endless treasures there..." How generations of Chinese people hope that the treasures will see the light of day and contribute to the economic construction of the motherland!

In September 1955, it was the early autumn season. On the rippling blue Songhua River, two small fishing boats were drifting down the river. They slept in the open air and traveled day and night. Along the gullies on both sides of the Songhua River, outcrops for geological observation. This is the five-member geological exploration team sent by the Northeast Geological Bureau, including Han Jingxing and Wang Sheng. It was the earliest team engaged in oil and gas exploration in the Songliao Basin after the founding of New China.

The exploration team first discovered rocks containing abundant ostracod fossils near Dongsandaogou and Minjiatun. When they opened the gray mudstone and oolitic marl, they smelled a strong smell of oil and asphalt. , soaked in chloroform solution and turned dark yellow. Everyone jumped up with joy and shouted: Found it! Oil and gas indications were discovered! The reconnaissance team then pursued the victory and discovered a terrestrial stratum rich in ostracod fossils with an oily smell and a "sesame cake" appearance in the gully near Laoshaogou Station on the south bank of the Second Songhua River. It is The earliest Cretaceous-Tertiary "Songhuajiang System" established and named. This is the main sedimentary layer buried in the Songliao Basin, but it is no longer the original idea to find marine sediments in Songliao Basin. Senior engineer Qu Fusheng, who has been engaged in oil and gas exploration in the Songliao Basin for a long time, described this major discovery like this: "It is a new era in the history of oil and gas exploration in the Songliao Basin. It has lifted the mysterious veil over the Songliao Basin and promoted Further deepening and development of oil and gas exploration in the Songliao Basin."

On March 1, 1954, Minister Li Siguang gave a speech on "my country's Petroleum Resources Exploration from the Geotectonics" at a symposium of the Petroleum Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Fuel Industry. The report "Prospects" pointed out that the main sag zones of the Neocathaysian structural belt have relatively good conditions for storing oil. It is clearly pointed out: "Starting from the Northeast Plain, passing through the Bohai Bay, to the North China Plain, and then south to the two lakes area, work can be done. Start from the basin edge of the Neocathaysian System, and at the same time start to explore the bottom of the covered area. Geophysical prospecting and drilling can be done "It seems to be of great significance." Former Soviet experts Trafimke and Mosiev agreed with Li Siguang's views and supported regional geophysical exploration and drilling in Northeast and North China. This is the first time that the Northeast Plain is strategically and theoretically pointed out as a promising area for oil resource exploration.

In 1954, the Ministry of Geology established the Census Committee as an agency for comprehensive management of mineral censuses. Li Siguang served as the director, Xie Jiarong and Huang Jiqing served as the technical directors, and Liu Yi served as the office director, and conducted research on Songliao's oil survey.

In 1955, according to the guidelines and tasks formulated by the Ministry of Geology’s first petroleum survey work conference, the Census Committee drafted and compiled the "Petroleum Geology of Songliao Plain" by Su Yunshan based on Huang Jiqing’s arrangements and specific opinions. "Reconnaissance Design Task Letter", in the name of the Census Committee, was issued to the Northeast Geological Bureau for organization and implementation on June 11 of the same year. When Huang Jiqing reviewed and approved the mission statement, he particularly emphasized the suggestion of conducting reconnaissance along both sides of the Songhua River.

This is the origin of the story of the two small fishing boats on the Songhua River mentioned above.

In March 1957, the Ministry of Petroleum Industry also sent the 116th Geological Team to conduct geological surveys in the Songliao Plain.

In the winter of 1957, the party group of the Ministry of Geology made the decision to move the strategic focus eastward, and gradually transferred the oil and gas exploration team and some technical personnel originally located in Xinjiang, Qinghai and other places to North China, Songliao, East China and other places. , strengthen oil and gas exploration work in the eastern region. For this reason, Songliao's oil exploration strength gradually grew.

In February 1958, Comrade Deng Xiaoping convened a petroleum promotion meeting in Chengdu with leaders of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry and the Ministry of Geology. After listening to reports from Li Jukui, Yu Qiuli and others, he pointed out: "The guiding ideology of petroleum exploration work The important principles are to choose the direction of the assault well, to properly handle the relationship between strategy, operations and tactics, and to pay attention to the economic benefits of exploration layout in the five regions of Songliao, North China, East China, Sichuan and Ordos. It would be great if we can find oil in the Northeast during the second five-year plan.”

It was agreed that the Songliao Plain should be the focus of national oil and gas exploration, and the strategic goal of "capture Songliao in three years and find oil fields in the east of my country as soon as possible" was proposed.

In March, the Ministry of Geology decided to establish the Songliao Petroleum Survey Team and the Northeast Petroleum Geophysical Exploration Team.

In June, the Ministry of Petroleum Industry established the Songliao Petroleum Exploration Bureau. So far, the two departments have worked together and fought side by side, and jointly strengthened Songliao's petroleum geology and geophysical exploration work.

In this month, when the Electromechanical Team No. 2 of the Northeast Petroleum Geophysical Exploration Team was working in the field, when the profile survey line passed through Gaotaizitun in the northwest of Datong Town, Anda County, it was discovered that there was an obvious basement uplift, which was in the basin depression. center, attracted the attention of Qu Fusheng, the technical leader of the team, and immediately reported the results to the team. At the same time, the electrical survey lines were quickly encrypted to prepare for detailed earthquake investigations.

In July, the brigade decided to send the third seismic team to conduct seismic verification work on the Gaotaizi electrical uplift and initially confirm the local structure of Gaotaizi.

In July 1958, the Ministry of Petroleum Industry held a meeting in Yumen.

The Songliao Petroleum Exploration Bureau proposed the deployment of drilling Well Songji 3 on the Gaotaizi structure to comprehensively understand the stratigraphy, structure and oil-bearing conditions of the central depression area of ??the Songliao Basin.

At the beginning of 1959, in order to strengthen the seismic exploration of Gaotaizi, a new seismic team No. 4 (technically responsible for Yu Zhanyuan) was formed to continue tracking southward. By the end of the year, through geological shallow drilling verification, it was confirmed that the Gaotaizi earthquake uplift extended for 150 kilometers, and that eight local structures formed the Datong Town Changyuan Belt, which was later called the "Daqing Changyuan". In early September 1958, Zhang Wenzhao, Zhong Qiquan and Yang Jiliang of the Songliao Petroleum Exploration Bureau, Han Jingxing of the Songliao Petroleum Survey Brigade, Zhu Dashou of the Northeast Petroleum Geophysical Exploration Brigade and other relevant technical personnel discussed and studied together. After multiple data additions and repeated arguments, they unanimously agreed Songji 3 well deployment. On November 24, the Ministry of Petroleum Industry officially approved the well location design plan for Well Songji 3, which was set at the high point of the Gaotaizi structure east of Xiaoxitun in the northwest of Datong Town and south of Gaotaizi.

On February 11, 1959, during the Spring Festival, Minister Yu Qiuli and Vice Minister Kang Shien of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry waited at the home of He Changgong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Geology, to discuss the issue of jointly accelerating oil exploration in the Songliao Basin. The leaders of the two ministries unanimously agreed to construct Well Songji 3 on the Gaotaizi structure.

On April 11, 1959, Well Songji 3, which was constructed by the 32118 drilling team of the Songliao Petroleum Exploration Bureau, was officially drilled. When drilling to 1461.76 meters, multiple layers of oil and gas displays and oil sands were found. However, abnormalities occurred in the well and the well deviation was too large; it was difficult to continue the drilling project. At that time, Vice Minister Kang Shien, who was accompanying the Soviet oil industry delegation to inspect Songliao, studied the situation in the well together with relevant experts. They must take decisive measures without hesitation and take action when it is time to complete the drilling test ahead of schedule. , to avoid causing underground accidents and wasting all previous efforts. Only in this way can we strive to discover oil fields as soon as possible. However, the former Soviet expert Milchenko disagreed and insisted that the benchmark well mission must be completed until the original designed well depth of 3,200 meters was drilled. However, his suggestion was not adopted by Kang Shien.

The oil testing work was carried out in an intense and orderly manner, and Vice Minister Kang and experts came to the site to provide guidance. At 16:00 on September 26, a 9.5 mm oil nozzle was used to spray, and a daily crude oil production of 14.9 cubic meters was obtained that day.

The first discovery well on the Songliao Plain spewed out industrial oil, and their long-cherished wish finally came true. People who had their dreams come true happily gave generous gifts to the 10th anniversary of the National Day. "Jilin Daily" was the first to report the news that "oil has been discovered in the Songliao Plain." This good news, which had never happened in hundreds of years, spread throughout the country and abroad. On October 8, Ouyang Qin, the First Secretary of Heilongjiang Province, officially announced that it would be named "Daqing Oilfield".

At the same time, the Fuyu Oilfield was successfully discovered in the oil test at 23:00 on September 29, the eve of the 10th anniversary of the National Day, in the Fu 27 well constructed by the Ministry of Geology in Honggaodian, Yada.

On February 18, 1960, the Ministry of Geology held an on-site meeting in Songliao on the national petroleum survey work to summarize Songliao’s experience and promote national oil and gas exploration work. The conference opened in Changchun City, visited Fuyu and Daqing, and ended in Harbin. Zhuo Xiong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Geology, presided over the meeting. Kang Shien, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, attended and delivered a speech. ***220 people attended the meeting.

The Songliao on-site meeting was held in the twelfth lunar month of winter, and it was freezing cold everywhere in the Great Northern Wilderness. At that time, I was transferred to Hebei from the North China Petroleum Survey Brigade and served as the technical director of the Hebei Petroleum Geology Brigade. Team leader Cui Lin and I were staying in Datong Town, a rural town, when we arrived at Songji 3 Well to participate in the on-site meeting. We stayed at a small hotel at night and saw lice crawling on the bedding in the pit, so we had to take off our clothes and hang them on the wire. This remote and backward town has now become a modern oil industry city - Daqing City.

After the discovery of the Daqing oil field, Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai personally met with "Iron Man" Wang Jinxi. Leaders of the Party Central Committee and the State Council such as Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Dong Biwu, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, and Peng Zhen inspected the Daqing Oilfield many times and gave important instructions, which greatly encouraged the more than 40,000 employees who participated in the oil battle.