Famous figures in the history of oil development

Thread Content

Shen Kuo, the earliest ancient Chinese scientist to give a name to petroleum – Shen Kuo (1031–1095), with the courtesy name Cunzhong and the pseudonym Mengxi Zhangren, was from Qiantang County, Hangzhou, during the Northern Song Dynasty (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang). He was proficient in astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, geography, agriculture, and medicine, and was one of the most outstanding scientists in Chinese history. In his later years, drawing on the experiences of his life, he wrote the extensive work in the form of notes titled \"Mengxi Bitan\" at Mengxi Garden in Zhenjiang. In \"Dream Pool Essays,\" Shen Kuo unified the names used throughout history for substances such as stone lacquer, stone resin water, fire oil, and fierce fire oil under the term \"petroleum,\" and provided a highly detailed description of petroleum. In the third year of the Yuanfeng era of the Northern Song Dynasty (1080), in order to defend against the Western Xia, Shen Kuo was appointed as the governor of Yanzhou (the area around Yan’an in present-day Shaanxi Province), At the same time serving as the commander in charge of military affairs and peacekeeping in the Fuyan region. Within the territory of Futing, he found that in areas where sand and stones mixed with spring water, streams of blackish liquid would often emerge. The local people call this liquid “lipid water”; they use the tail feathers of pheasants to dip it into, collect it in jars, and use it to light lamps ； But the thick smoke emitted after burning always darkened the curtain. Driven by his scientific intuition, Shen Kuo realized that this smoke could be utilized; he collected some soot to make ink, giving it the name \"Yanchuan Stone Ink\". This experience is recorded in \"Mengxi Bitan\": \"There is petroleum in the areas of Fufeng and Yanzhou. It was traditionally said that ‘the county of Gaonu produces oily water’, and this refers to it.\" It grows by the water’s edge, where sand and stones mix with spring water; it emerges there. The local people use pheasant feathers to line it and then collect it into jars. It resembles pure lacquer, yet feels like hemp; moreover, its smoke is very dense, turning any curtain or cover it touches black. Still doubting whether the smoke could be used, he tried using the coal from it as ink; the resulting black color was as dark as lacquer, even surpassing that of pine ink. So he produced large quantities of it, and the inscription on them read ‘Yanchuan Stone Ink’. This thing will surely become very popular in the world; I was the first to create it. Oil is inexhaustible; it exists deep in the earth in great quantities, unlike pine wood which runs out from time to time. Now, the pine forests between Qi and Lu have all been depleted; as one moves towards the Taihang Mountains, the areas west of Beijing, and the south of the Yangtze River, most of the pine trees there are also gone. The coal makers knew the benefits of stone smoke. Coal smoke is also thick, like the clothes of ink people. ”Shen Kuo was the first to explicitly use the term “petroleum,” and he predicted that “petroleum is abundant; it exists in large quantities underground and will never run out, unlike pine wood which eventually runs out.” Now, questions are arising in Qi Lu; they are gradually spreading to Taihang, western Beijing, and the south of the Yangtze River. In most areas of Songshan, people are still children, and those who produce coal are unaware of the benefits of coal smoke. ”Recognizing the abundant oil reserves in the Northern Shaanxi oil field, it is believed that oil can serve as a substitute for pine wood and is a valuable fuel; moreover, there are endless reserves beneath the strata, allowing for large-scale extraction and even indefinite use. Shen Kuo’s prediction that \"oil is abundant, and its supply in the earth is endless\" was verified a thousand years later. In 1907, outside the west gate of Yanchang County in Yan’an Prefecture, the “Yan-1 well” was drilled – it was 81 meters deep and produced oil in large quantities; this well was considered the first oil well on the Chinese mainland. From then on, oil extraction in Yan’an entered an era with modern significance. The “Yanzhou Petroleum” depicted by him has since developed into the renowned Changqing Oil Field. The total proven geological reserves of oil and gas in this field amount to 541.888 million tons, with an annual production volume of 20 million tons – accounting for about one-tenth of the country’s total production. It is one of China’s key energy bases.