Wildcatters drill for oil in far west

Yi Shiming's job is as rigorous as it is rewarding. As a wildcatter, a person who sinks exploratory oil wells, Yi is among hundreds of workers tasked with looking for black gold in China's far west.

Originally from Chongqing municipality, about 4,000 kilometers from Xinjiang, Yi, 48, is a contract worker for Chuanqing Geophysical Prospecting, which belongs to China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). He has worked in the Tarim basin in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for more than a third of his life.

He leads an 11-member team, currently based in Tugermin, a 200-square-kilometer area that sits along the Kuqa depression, where several oil deposits have been explored, including the Kela-2 gas field, a major supplier to the West-East gas pipeline.

The pipeline began to transport gas from resource-rich Xinjiang to the east of the country in 2004.

Along the Kuqa belt, at least two more large oilfields have been found in the last decade: Dina-2 oilfield was found in 2001, with deposits of 175 billion cubic meters of gas, and Keshen, found in 2008, boasts deposits of 476 billion cubic meters. Both feed gas into the West-East pipeline.

"My job is like an X-ray for the mountains. We help uncover where the oil and gas deposits are," Yi said.

Yi and his colleagues drill along exploration lines drawn by geologists who use seismic imaging to understand the geological structure of mountains to locate new oil fields.

There are 15 straight lines in Tugermin. Yi and his colleagues need to sink 9,633 wells, from 10 to 40 meters deep, along the lines. Each well is 40 meters apart from another and the margin of error can not exceed one meter.

The wildcatters began this task in May, and their work must be done by October, when the winter weather makes work difficult, said Yi. After Tugermin, they will move on to another area along the Kuqa belt.

Challenging working enviroment

Though drilling is deemed an entry level position, wildcatters have one of the most important jobs.

Yi and his team must be hardy and strong.

Everyday, Yi and his colleagues have to carry heavy drilling machines, tools, and barrels of oil and water across the steep mountains.

A well takes around three hours to drill, but moving from one well to another is the most physically demanding. In Tugermin, there are over 200 mountains that the team must climb.

Yi is working with the equipment. Photo: Xinhua

"In my dreams I'm still carrying heavy things," said Cai Ziyou, 30.

"For each one of us, four or five pairs of shoes and seven or eight pairs of long pants wear out every year," Yi said.

Though pay for the company's management level is cut due to low oil prices, workers like Yi are not affected because they work in harsh conditions, said Ma Chuan, project manager at Tugermin.

Prospecting

Oil and gas resources in Xinjiang make up about 20 percent of the national total, sources wit Tarim oilfield said.

By September, Tarim oilfield had supplied 170 billion cubic meters of gas, equaling 200 million tonnes of coal, to the West-East pipeline.

The gas is used by 400 million residents and over 3,000 enterprises in more than 120 medium and large cities across 15 provinces and municipalities.

Finding more oil deposits is key to sustaining the pipeline in the future and to the nation's energy safety, said Ma.

"There is a great chance of finding oil in Tugermin, otherwise we would not have invested so heavily here," said Ma.

(APD)