Chapter 24 chapter Five

On October 10, 1949, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, after a long struggle, the Chinese people finally got rid of the oppression and exploitation of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, gained freedom and liberation, and a new China was born.However, in the hundred years since the Opium War, China, the subject of the Eastern Empire, has become poor and empty by this time.After Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party cleaned up this mess, the most urgent and difficult problem was how to get the country out of poverty. The industrial revolution was undoubtedly the only fundamental way out, and the oil industry was the top priority of the entire industrial revolution.

Mao Zedong, who is proficient in strategy, attached great importance to this issue.On the eighteenth day after he announced the establishment of the People's Republic, he issued an order to establish the Ministry of Fuel Industry in the name of the Chairman of the Central People's Government, and personally nominated Chen Yu, a veteran industrial revolutionist, as the minister.The newly established Ministry of Fuel Industry set up a special agency for the Petroleum Administration in the second year.Mr. Sun Jianchu, a famous geologist and the pioneer and discoverer of Yumen Oilfield, my country's first oil industry base, was hired as the Director of the Exploration Department of the Petroleum Administration Bureau.At that time, China's oil industry was in a vast land, where to find oil, and its strategic direction was very vague. The only thing to rely on was a Yumen oil field discovered by Sun Jianchu in the early 1940s and a few people left behind when the Japanese invaded Northeast China. Oil plant.Based on this, the central government determined the two major goals of strengthening oil exploration in Northwest China and mobilizing forces to restore man-made oil in Northeast China.The burden of Northwest Petroleum Exploration was handed over to Sun Jianchu, and on August 6, 1950, Northwest Petroleum Administration Bureau and Yumen Mining Bureau were established.Sun Jianchu, a generation of oil pioneer, received such great love from the Communist Party of China, and devoted himself to his work. However, at the moment when he wanted to contribute to the new China's oil industry, in the middle of the night of November 10, 1952, he unfortunately died of gas poisoning and died all year round. 56 years old.The sudden and long death of Sun Jianchu caused China's oil exploration industry to once fall into a blank.The top decision-makers had to focus on the man-made oil in Northeast China, which was extremely expensive and low in output, and restored the Fushun East Oil Plant in a short period of time and became the Second Petroleum Plant, Jinxi Petroleum Fifth Plant, and Fushun West Oil Plant. After the oil refinery, the No. 1 Petroleum Plant, the No. 9 Petroleum Plant after the Huadian Shale Oil Plant, and the No. 6 Petroleum Plant after the Jinzhou Gas Synthesis Plant.The so-called man-made oil is a kind of rock called shale, through a large number of complicated dry distillation and other processes, to extract man-made oil similar to natural oil, and its cost is more than ten times that of natural oil.Helplessly, many industrial constructions require oil, and failure to do so will make many industries impossible.Policy makers such as Mao Zedong gritted their teeth and tightened their belts to squeeze the oil of life from the stone.By 1952, the production of man-made oil reached 240,000 tons, accounting for 55% of the country's total crude oil production at that time. The Chinese relied on such a little bit of man-made oil to support the construction of New China, especially most of the urgently needed oil on the Korean battlefield. .

It's too pitiful, and it's obviously not a long-term solution. Mao Zedong is worried about this.For a huge country, which is still under construction and needs to meet the supply of war, relying on only 400,000 tons of oil is simply a drop in the bucket.What is more serious is that China's oil resources are still in the state of life imprisonment judged by international scientific authorities as an oil-poor country. To find it, you have to find out the underground of 9.6 million square kilometers. In August 1952, Mao Zedong announced the establishment of the Ministry of Geology of the Central People's Government.As soon as the sign was hung up, Mao Zedong called He Changgong, who was sent to be the party secretary and deputy minister of the ministry, to his side.

"Changgong, have you heard from the technicians in the Ministry of Geology that there is no oil in China?" Mao Zedong asked straight to the point. This... He Changgong was so anxious that his back was covered with cold sweat. He looked at Peng Zhen who was sitting beside him, and didn't know how to answer the old Mao who was getting more and more timid.If there is, it would be terrible if the cowhide is blown out!If you say no, Lao Mao certainly doesn't like to hear it. He Changgong hesitated for a long time but did not say a few words. "Ah! Oil, oil, what a worry!" Mao Zedong waved to He Changgong and Peng Zhen dejectedly, signaling them to leave. He needed to think about it alone.Not many days after the two left, Mao Zedong notified the secretary: let the Minister of Geology Li Siguang come, and the Prime Minister.

What worries the elderly is oil. Mao Zedong's meeting with a democrat was much more polite than summoning his old subordinate He Changgong. "How old is Comrade Li Siguang this year?" Mao Zedong smiled. Li Siguang: "66 years old." Mao Zedong let out a little surprise, and said, "Four years older than me, and a famous scientist, that's my husband?!" Li Siguang was flattered: "Don't dare, dare not, I am a minority in the geological world." Mao Zedong said unhurriedly: "It doesn't matter to be a minority. I, Comrade Enlai, used to be a minority. I was excluded more than once, but sometimes the truth is in the hands of a few."

Li Siguang nodded excitedly. Mao Zedong restrained his smile and turned to the main topic: "Sir, we Communists have toppled three mountains, and now we want to build a new China. To carry out construction, oil is indispensable. Flying in the sky, running on the ground, can't turn without oil." Move. Right now we burn kerosene every day in the car. I don’t have any oil. If I want to be patriotic, I don’t feel so happy about it!” Li Siguang felt very guilty: "We didn't do a good job." Mao Zedong shook his head: "This account cannot be blamed on you, and you, Li Siguang, did not say that China is poor in oil!"

"Comrade Li Siguang, we know that you have your own views on the oil issue. The chairman wants to hear your opinion." Zhou Enlai interjected, "What do you think about my country's natural oil reserves? If it is really not good, we should think about it earlier. Take the road of artificial oil. The country's various constructions are progressing very quickly, and we can't afford to waste time!" After hearing this, Li Siguang said quickly: "No, no, we don't need to make this choice yet. Chairman, Prime Minister, according to the law of crustal movement, I think oil generation is one thing, and oil storage is another. The key is to correctly understand the laws of underground structures and find out the structures that store oil. In some places, although there is no sign of oil and gas on the surface, the underground may be a large oil-bearing area..."

"So, there may be a large oily place under our ground?" Mao Zedong raised his eyebrows and asked. "That's right." Li Siguang said affirmatively: "China is such a big country, and its geological structure is very rich. The existence of oil-rich formations should not be excluded!" Mao Zedong was happy: "Mr.'s point of view is in line with the dialectics that everything is divided into two. Emphasizing it is definitely not Marxism-Leninism!" Zhou Enlai stood up from his seat and said with a hearty smile: "Our Minister of Geology is very optimistic and courageous! Comrade Li Siguang, you say that China has oil, and I support you!"

Mao Zedong also stood up after hearing this: "Okay, I will vote for Mr. Li Siguang was emotional.At that time, all he felt was the burden on his shoulders. In the history of New China, there were few scientific intellectuals like Li Siguang who received such perfect praise and admiration from Mao Zedong. After leaving Zhongnanhai, Li Siguang returned to his office, thinking about Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai's words all the time. He felt that it was imminent to start a national petroleum geological survey and exploration.However, as a newly formed government department, there are too many mineral resources needed for national construction, such as steel for building airplanes and cannons, uranium mines for testing nuclear weapons, copper and tin mines for people's lives, and plans to build the Yangtze River. The engineering survey task of the bridge, of course, oil is the top priority of these mineral resources and other tasks.The Ministry of Geology is an administrative department. It is difficult to rely on an administrative department alone to carry out effective work in the mineral census work. It is necessary to establish a professional department to devote itself to it.

Li Siguang told He Changgong and other vice ministers of his thoughts, and quickly formed a collective opinion.Therefore, at the beginning of 1954, a special organization responsible for planning and guiding various national mineral survey and exploration tasks—the Mineral Survey Committee of the Ministry of Geology was announced to be established.Li Siguang and He Changshang discussed that this substantive institution must have the most prestigious and practical people in the domestic academic circles play the leading role.After repeated selection, the party group of the ministry transferred three senior officials. They were Huang Jiqing, director of the Southwest Geological Bureau, Xie Jiarong, chief engineer of the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources of the Ministry of Geology, and Liu Yi, head of the general office of the Ministry of Geology.The three were respectively appointed as members of the Standing Committee of the General Committee to preside over the daily work.The Ministry of Geology took such pains to entrust Huang, Xie, and Liu with such an important task.Liu is a veteran revolutionary and a nine-level cadre. He has another position in the general committee as secretary of the party committee and director of the office, and is actually the chief executive.Xie is a famous mineral deposit scientist and a unique authority on mineral exploration.The other Huang Jiqing was transferred from the Southwest because of his two advantages. On the one hand, he is a famous geologist, and on the other hand, he is also one of the top experts in petroleum geology in China.He and Xie Jiarong are actually the general technical directors of the general committee, plus Liu Yi, the administrative leader, such a three-person team should be said to be the best match.

In addition to the above-mentioned senior members of the General Committee, there is another important figure, and he is Li Ben.This young man was already the deputy director of the Northeast Geological Bureau before he was sent to the General Committee.He was appointed as the deputy director of the office in the General Committee, and he is actually the big housekeeper.Li Ben is an important and legendary figure in the history of new China's oil industry construction.He is a Communist from Xiaobalu. In 1945, when his troops crossed the Longhai Highway, the Japanese surrendered. As a young man, he was sent to his hometown Renhua County as the secretary of the county party committee.After liberation, Yuan Baohua, then director of the General Office of the Ministry of Industry of the Northeast People's Government, summoned him to the mining industry.This young and capable party member cadre is deeply valued and appreciated by Huang Jiqing and Xie Jiarong.The discovery process of China's Daqing Oilfield would have been a few years later if Li Ben hadn't been running around and dealing with it.However, it was such an old oilman who fought side by side with Kang Shien in the Battle of Daqing, who had never been promoted in the decades since he took office at the bureau level in the early days of liberation. When he retired later, he was still the director.According to Huang Jiqing, a capable person like Li Ben has long been a ministerial leader in the Ministry of Petroleum.It's a pity that there may be too many talents in the Ministry of Geology, otherwise Li Ben may not be the only one who will never succeed in the officialdom. In addition to Li Ben's administrative office, the general committee has a geological department, which is the main business department.Famous geologists Wang Yuelun, Zhu Xia, Guan Shicong, etc. are also among them.And more people like Zhang Ruixiang, Deng Kegang, Su Yunshan, Ding Zhengyan, Yu Fei, Zhu Jushan, Ao Yu, Feng Fulu, Hu Dingheng, Liu Zhengkun, Sun Renyi, Chen Jixian, Ning Zongshan, Zhou Zhiwu, Ren Jishun, Wang Guang, etc. Most of the young people who have just graduated from university have become the pillars of my country's geology industry. In December 1954, in order to accelerate the development of the petroleum industry, the State Council decided to unite the forces of the Ministry of Geology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the General Administration of Petroleum Administration of the Ministry of Fuel Industry, and assigned the Ministry of Geology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to undertake oil and gas surveys and scientific research tasks.The Petroleum Management Bureau of the Ministry of Fuel Industry, where Kang Shien is the director, is responsible for the exploration and development of oil and gas resources.The following year, the bureau was abolished and replaced by the independent Ministry of Petroleum Industry.Huang Jiqing and his general committee's task was also changed from a comprehensive mineral survey task to a national oil and natural gas survey and exploration.This news is undoubtedly great news for Huang Jiqing, who has devoted his life to the construction of China's oil and gas industry. Perhaps because Li Siguang's name has been too loud and glorious in recent decades, the vast majority of Chinese people know very little about other figures in China's geological science community.In fact, Chinese geological science in the 20th century is more worthy of our Chinese pride than other scientific circles.And Li Siguang is not the only one among the large number of world-class masters who have emerged in the world of geosciences in China! Huang Jiqing is one of those who can keep pace with Li Siguang, and is one of the rare masters of science in China's geoscience circle who can be called the father of PetroChina.