State Key Lab of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation (Southwest Petroleum University)

This laboratory is the only national level key laboratory in the field of petroleum industry in China. It is a base for scientific research, experimental research, academic exchange and high-level personnel training in the petroleum industry, which was established in 1988 and approved in 1990 by the Chinese Government with Prof. Luo Pingya (Academician of China Academy of Engineering) as its Director. The laboratory was open to the outside world in 1995. And It was evaluated in the year of 2000 and 2006 by the Ministry of Science and Technology, China with the result of Excellence.

Research Orientations and Contents

Focusing on exploration and development of complex oil/gas reservoirs, the laboratory mainly deals with the following areas:
1) Petroleum Reservoir Geology and Exploration;
2) Petroleum Drilling and Reservoir Exploitation Engineering.
The laboratory aims its researches at complex reservoirs, such as gas condensed/oil reservoirs, low-permeability reservoirs, carbonate reservoirs, low-pressure reservoirs and reservoirs at the high water-cut period. Concretely, the main research contents of the laboratory are as follows:
1) Comprehensive research of oil/gas reservoir geology;
2) Research on the integrated, dynamic and quantitative geological characteristics of petroliferous sedimentary basins;
3) Research on the theories, methods and technologies for the exploration of complex oil and gas reservoirs;
4) Research on the theories, methods, technologies and designs for the exploitation of complex petroleum reservoirs;
5) Research on the petroleum well working fluids and technologies in reservoir protection;
6) Research on the new technologies in drilling, petroleum production and related equipment and tools.

Research Achievements and Progress

Aiming its research at developing and perfecting the theories, methods and technologies for the exploration and exploitation of complex oil/gas reservoirs, the laboratory employs the advantage of group research based on the overlap and penetration of multiple disciplines to participate in and organize national or ministerial (provincial) important research programs. Since its foundation, the laboratory has undertaken a number of projects, including “863 Project”, “Climbing Plan”, “973 Project”, Projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National Key-Problem-Tackling Project, and the international cooperation projects. Moreover, the laboratory takes advantage of advanced technologies to offer technological service and support to many petroleum corporations, and successfully has organized and actualized more than 200 items of large-scale engineering projects. The laboratory gains substantial research foundation funds, which cumulatively amounts to about 200 million RMB.
The laboratory has made breakthroughs and gained creative research achievements in the fields of basic theories of the exploration and exploitation of oil/gas reservoir and the practical technologies/ methods. More than forty achievements were granted as “International Advanced” and over 100 as “Excellent” or “Domestic Advanced”. The research staff has published more than 1,000 works, of which over 300 were searched by the Three Index Systems. Among the numerous achievements, two were awarded first-class recognition, six as second-class, five as third-class by the “National Science and Technology Progress Award”. Thirty were awarded as first-class, fifty-four as second-class, seventy-six as third-class of the “Province (Ministry) Science and Technology Progress Award”. Economically the achievements created direct economic benefit of about 1.5 billion RMB and acquired oil/gas resources worthy of more than 60 billion RMB.
The laboratory has acquired various advanced-rank achievements from the studies of petroleum exploration and exploitation, part of which have been advanced internationally. The reservoir protective technology, put forward by the project “Shielding Technology for Formation Damage Control in Well Drilling, Completion” directed by Academician, Luo Pingya, is becoming the new technology to be adopted at-large by China’s petroleum companies, as well as the international market. In China, the technology has been applied to tens of thousands of oil wells, which helps to increase petroleum output by 10 to 20 percent. The research group from the project “Research on Seismic Wave Field characteristic of Complex Oil and Gas Reservoir and Its Application”, directed by Prof. He Zhenhua, used its achievements (part of them were awarded as third-class of the “National Science and Technology Progress Award” in 1999) to study and solve difficult problems The achievement has acquired 48,000,000 tons of petroleum explored reserves plus controlled reserves, and has forecast 203,100,000 tons of petroleum resources. The research group from the project “Petroleum Geology Investigation and Evaluation of Qiangtang Basin, Cuoqin Basin, Kekexili Basin, Tibet”, directed by Prof. Wang Chengshan (the champion of the National Elite Youth Fund), first traversed the depopulated North Tibet region called the “Life Forbidden Zone” by geographic explorers, and provided precious first-hand data for petroleum perspective evaluation. The research group, directed by Prof. Li Yun, achieved much progress in the study of theories of oil/gas seepage flow and applied technologies. The project “Application and Generalization of Technology of Reservoir Numerical Simulation” was received the second-class awarded of the “National Science and Technology Progress Award” in 2000.

Personnel Training

The laboratory serves not only as one of the key academic research bases in the oil/gas reservoir exploration and exploitation engineering, but also as one of the key bases for training high level personnel in related disciplines. Discipline enhancement and personnel training involve the following three first-class subjects: Geological Resources and Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Geology.
The laboratory emphasizes both quantity and quality of high-level personnel training, seeing it as an important task. Over the last five years, more than 500 master's students, more than 300 Ph.D. students and 30 post-doctorates have obtained their degrees or finalized their research in the SWPU laboratory. At present, over 300 master or doctoral students and 20 post-doctorate research fellows are studying in the laboratory. All three degree levels of the esteemed graduates from the laboratory are work mostly on the front line of production, scientific research and education, and the majority of them have become the academic and technological pillars of their firms.

Academic Exchange

The academic exchange is one of the important contents for opening the laboratory to the outside and a key way of promoting scientific research and personnel training. The laboratory forces international academic exchange in every possible way. In the past years, more than forty foreign researchers have been invited to the laboratory for teaching and research. Over sixty researchers from the laboratory have been sent abroad for international academic exchange. The laboratory organized and convened the international conference of the “International Symposium on Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Development Engineering” three times, and participated in the organization of the international conferences “ISEEG’97”, “15th HKT”, “International Symposium on Risk Evaluation for Oil/Gas Exploration”, and so on. Moreover, the laboratory has held Annual Academic Symposiums for four years. The wide academic exchange not only promotes scientific research and personnel training of the laboratory, but also enlarges its influence internationally.