(Text/ Xu Lina)

Recently, Daqing Oilfield held a press conference to announce that Daqing Oilfield Gulong shale oil exploration has achieved a major strategic breakthrough. The estimated oil reserves of 1.268 billion tons have been added!

This exciting news marks that the sustainable development of Daqing Oilfield has entered a new milestone stage and is of great significance to guarantee national energy security effectively. Our school and Daqing Oilfield co-existed and are close to each other as flesh and blood. During the Daqing Oil Campaign in the 1960s, we thoroughly carried forward the Daqing Spirit and Iron Man Spirit, cultivated many professional talents for the energy industry of the motherland, provided strong scientific and technological support, and made outstanding contributions. "Based on the new development stage, the modernization of New Longjiang, and the new journey of century-old oilfield construction, Daqing shale oil exploration and development provides our school with a rare opportunity and leap-forward support. As a characteristic university in the energy industry, the school is backed by large oil fields. It is a university with complete petroleum and petrochemical disciplines that has full coverage in the northeastern part of China. It has a unshirkable responsibility and mission in ensuring national energy security, provincial energy security, especially shale oil exploration and development. The school will vigorously carry forward the glorious tradition of NEPU people always contributing to the oil campaign, fully release the new momentum of servicing regional economic and social development, and contribute inexhaustible impetus to the protection of the national energy industry." Secretary of the Party Committee Sun Mingxue and Principal Jiang Minghu said.

Safeguard national energy security, strategically focus on shale oil exploration and development

As a petroleum university, our school always takes safeguarding national energy security as its duty. In assisting the exploration and development of Daqing shale oil, the school is guided by the major strategic needs of national oil and gas and the integration frontier of shale oil and gas geology and engineering. Centering on the three critical points of leading the application of fundamental theories, vital technological breakthroughs, and leading the development of disciplines, the university carries out the research and application of basic and forward-looking standard technologies. It has formed five promising and characteristic research directions: integration of shale oil and gas geology and engineering, unconventional oil and gas geophysics, in-suit-conversion and production of oil shale, unconventional reservoir fracturing, and completion research, and efficient development of unconventional oil and gas. Significant progress has been made in basic theoretical research on shale oil exploration and development, personnel training, laboratory platform construction, opening to the outside world, and operation and management mode. The school followed unconventional oil and gas exploration and development strategies and established an Unconventional Oil and Gas Research Institute. Based on the key laboratory of the Ministry of Education for "Continental Shale Oil and Gas Accumulation and Efficient Development," it was fully involved in the shale oil exploration deployment, and development plan undertook the testing and analysis of 35% of shale oil samples of Daqing Oilfield. Since 2021, the school has invested nearly 10 million yuan in building a vital laboratory of the Ministry of Education and purchased urgently needed equipment for a shale oil laboratory to guarantee the timeless of sample testing and analysis in shale oil campaigns.

(The key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil and Gas Accumulation and Efficient Development of the Ministry of Education in our university was accepted.)

(NEPU and Daqing Oilfield jointly hosted the "International Symposium on New Progress in Tight Oil and Shale Oil Exploration".)

Our school has established a Provincial Key Laboratory of Tight Oil, and Shale Oil Reservoir Formation in Heilongjiang Province with Daqing Oilfield jointly applied for the provincial major scientific and technological project, and which is finally approved, and undertaken the high-end cooperative research project of Daqing Oilfield shale oil.

Create a magnetic field effect; talents support shale oil exploration and development.

"Development is the top priority, talent is the top resource, and innovation is the top driving force.". Talents play an essential role in technological innovation and are the endogenous driving force for continuous, high-quality development. The school adheres to the principle of basing itself on the local market and taking a global view to attracting talents, creating the magnetic field effect of talents, building a high-level shale oil innovation research team, and supporting the exploration and development of shale oil in Daqing. The group has gathered authoritative academicians and formed a scientific and technological innovation team of nearly 70 people led by high-end talents at home and abroad. The school has introduced internationally renowned experts and appointed the former chief geologist of Daqing Oilfield Exploration and Development Research Institute as the distinguished professor of the university to guide shale oil researchers to carry out scientific and technological innovation research based on the needs of enterprises. We hired academician Jia Chengzao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to serve as the honorary dean of the Sanya Institute of Offshore Oil and Gas. We initially formed and continuously expanded a high-level scientific research team to provide a strong guarantee for the efficient advancement of shale oil research. "Among the 16 scientific and technological research projects, three are recruited, and the number of recruiting projects ranks first among universities and research institutes in our country. The university actively organized scientific research personnel to participate in the preparation work of the State Key Laboratory of Shale Oil and the Provincial Laboratory led by Daqing Oilfield, cooperated with Daqing Oilfield Exploration and Development Research Institute and conducted technical exchanges, and actively solved the technical demand and "bottleneck" problem of Daqing Oilfield. "Research on key issues of oil enrichment mechanism and rock mechanics of unconventional reservoirs" won the first prize of Natural Science of Heilongjiang Province.

(NEPU held a seminar on the construction of the Modern Industry School of Unconventional Oil and Gas.)

Build an efficient operation mechanism to serve shale oil exploration and development

The university pressed the responsibility guarantee, mobilized the entire school to serve shale oil exploration and development, actively implemented the Work Plan of Heilongjiang Province to Accelerate the Promotion of Daqing Shale Oil Exploration and Development Special Class, aimed at crucial technologies, condensed the promising direction, and optimized the layout of disciplines and majors based on the establishment and improvement of the system and mechanism. The school has established a shale oil leadership class and a technical class to carry out shale oil technology research from 10 directions, regularly carry out technical seminars, and test and analyze shale oil campaign samples around the clock. They were focusing on the integration of shale oil geology and engineering, integrating teaching resources, accelerating the construction of disciplines, completing the enrollment preparations for undergraduates in the field of "unconventional oil and gas science and engineering," preparing for the establishment of the "unconventional oil and gas modern industry college," and promoting shale oil "technological innovation" —the transformation of achievements—technical services—talent cultivation" ---Integrated production-education collaborative education mechanism construction to provide technical and reserve talent support for shale oil exploration and development.