The Institute of Geophysical Exploration and Chongqing Shale Gas Exploration & Development Co., Ltd. jointly organized a themed Party Day activity.

On April 12, the Party Branch of the General Office of the Geophysical Exploration Institute, the Well Logging Party Branch, the Temporary Party Branch of the Yuxi Wide-Area Electromagnetic Exploration Project Team, and the First and Second Party Branches of the General Office of Chongqing Shale Gas Exploration and Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Chongqing Shale Gas Company”) jointly held a themed Party Day activity titled “Stimulating New-Model Productivity and Stepping into a New Stage of High-Quality Development.” Leading officials including Zhang Guangda, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman, and General Manager of the Geophysical Exploration Institute, and Li Yuegang, Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Chongqing Shale Gas Company, along with party members from the relevant branches, attended the Party Day event.

The thematic Party Day event kicked off at the transmission station located at the Yuxi Wide-Area Electromagnetic Exploration Project Office in Tongliang, Chongqing. The Yuxi Wide-Area Electromagnetic Exploration Project is a joint research initiative undertaken by two institutions to tackle the challenge of imaging steeply dipping structures. It is also a core key project for the Institute of Geophysical Exploration in 2024. Steeply dipping and complex structural zones, heavily influenced both by surface lithology and topography, have long posed significant challenges for seismic exploration technology. This project represents a practical application and successful transformation of recent scientific and technological innovations—specifically, the application of wide-area electromagnetic methods for fault detection in complex structural areas. It has opened up a new frontier and created a fresh path for addressing fault detection in such challenging regions. By overcoming critical “bottleneck” technologies, the project has developed a series of wide-area electromagnetic techniques for oil and gas fault detection, fostering new drivers and advantages for development. Once these breakthroughs are fully realized, the technology will hold broad application prospects in the oil and gas, geological mining, and geoscientific exploration industries.

Liu Jinhui, the secretary of the project’s temporary Party branch, gave a live presentation on the breakthrough achievements and trial results of the wide-area electromagnetic method in this project. Through on-site visits to the transmitting and receiving stations as well as technical explanations, the participants gained a deeper understanding of the principle, methodology, technical features, and field operation procedures of the wide-area electromagnetic method, enabling them to form a more intuitive grasp of the project.

Li Yuegang, General Manager of Chongqing Shale Gas Company, highly praised the achievements made in this project and expressed his hope that the two organizations will deepen their cooperation, jointly tackle challenging technical issues, and look forward to achieving further technological breakthroughs, thereby fostering new, high-quality productive forces in shale gas exploration and development.

New-quality productive forces

Focusing on the theme of "new-quality productivity," Zhang Guangda, Secretary of the Party Branch Committee of the Geophysical Exploration Institute, and Zhang Haijie, Secretary of the First Branch of the Chongqing Shale Gas Company’s administrative office, each delivered special Party lessons. Party members engaged in lively exchanges and shared their views, stating that they should regularly study General Secretary Xi’s important remarks on new-quality productivity, deeply grasp the core essence of this concept, and, in light of their respective primary responsibilities and strengths, continue to make great strides in innovation within the field of shale gas exploration and development. By leveraging new-quality productivity to empower the company’s high-quality development, they pledged to make new contributions to China’s energy development strategy.

Zhang Haijie stated that: First, achieving cost-effective development of shale gas in deep, thin reservoirs with long horizontal sections poses high technical requirements; the break-even point for integrated geological-engineering-economic scaled, rolling development in western Chongqing remains elusive. Second, there is still a certain gap between actual performance and the targets approved in the development plans. Third, the challenges in safety and environmental protection management are steadily increasing, and the current risk-management capabilities need further enhancement to better align with the goal of high-quality development. The situation regarding safe and environmentally friendly production remains complex and severe. We must deeply recognize the critical role of new-quality productivity in the large-scale, cost-effective development of deep shale gas, continuously explore and practice in real-world settings, and steadily advance the company’s sustained, healthy, and high-quality development.

Li Yuegang stated that the efficient development of shale gas requires first discovering reserves through exploration, then extracting production from those reserves through development, and finally achieving sales through oilfield services. There are still many unresolved challenges in the efficient development of shale gas, and the technological breakthroughs pursued by this project represent key technologies for realizing efficient development, reducing costs, and enhancing efficiency—technologies that epitomize a new type of productive force.

Next, all Party members visited the Chongqing Hongyan Heavy-Duty Automobile Museum. Using the development trajectory of Hongyan heavy-duty trucks as its theme and focusing on the Third Front Construction, the museum vividly portrays the arduous and self-reliant struggle undertaken half a century ago by construction workers from all over China who came together to build the Third Front. With more than 8,000 artifacts, historical documents, literary materials, and industrial heritage items, the museum bears witness to those passionately turbulent years of the Third Front Construction.

Passing through the Gate of Time feels like returning to those arduous and striving years. Through listening to explanations, touring illustrated exhibition panels, and watching documentaries, we have gained a profound understanding of the great spirit of Party founding, the “Third Front Spirit,” and the spirit of craftsmanship of our times. All Party members were deeply moved by the visionary foresight of the older generation of proletarian leaders, inspired by the pioneering spirit of the builders of the Third Front who forged ahead with painstaking effort, and profoundly shaken by the passionate epic of struggle waged by people in the last century. At the same time, we’ve come to a deeper appreciation of the importance of developing and enhancing productive forces.

Everyone expressed that each generation has its own mission and responsibility. If the Third Front construction was a major strategic adjustment made by our Party to strengthen war preparedness and reshape China’s productive forces layout, then the proposal of “new-quality productivity” represents yet another qualitative leap in our Party’s understanding of productive forces. We must carry forward the spirit of hard work, selfless dedication, and deep love for our country and nation embodied by the builders of the Third Front. We should adopt a work attitude characterized by unity, collaboration, and courage in innovation; stay committed to our respective posts, intensify our efforts in scientific research and technological breakthroughs, achieve new technological breakthroughs, and accelerate the development of a new-quality productivity with distinctive geophysical exploration features. Let us be geophysicists who live up to our mission and are worthy of our times.

Executive Producer | Zhang Guangda
Reviewed by | Zou Zhongping
Editor-in-charge | Zhou Huiying
Text | Zhou Huiying
Video | Jia Jianchao
Photo | Wen Han
Editor | Wen Han