Established in 1939, Yumen Oilfield is China’s first natural oil base. From 1939 to 1949, the oilfield produced 520,000 tons of crude oil, accounting for 95% of the national crude oil production at that time. After 1949, the oil field was listed as one of the 156 key construction projects in China during the “The First Five Year Plan” period. It was built as China’s first modern petroleum industry base in 1957. In 1959, it produced 1.4 million tons of crude oil, ranking as the highest in the history of the oilfield, accounting for 51% of the national crude oil production in that year, supporting half of the petroleum industry in New China. Since the 1960s, the oilfield has undertaken the historical task of “Three Larges and Four Outputs” (Three Larges refer to large school, large experimental field and large research institute; Four Outputs mean developing products, experience, talents and technology). Yumen oilfield has sent backbone forces of over 100,000 people as well as over 4000 sets of equipment to oilfields and refining & petrochemical companies nationwide. Because of this, Yumen Oilfield has been known as the “cradle of China’s petroleum industry”. The famous poet Li Ji once wrote a poem praising Yumen Oilfield: “the Soviet Union has Baku, China has Yumen, where there is oil, there are Yumen people.” Yumen Oilfield has made significant achievements in oil exploration and development, new energy development, technical services, refining and petrochemical business. 

Based on the Huanqing New Area and the newly added optimally allocated blocks of mineral rights, the company strives to achieve a breakthrough in crude oil production and natural gas. It vigorously implements the policy of “reducing oil  and adding specialized products” and accelerates the construction of “special oil products” refineries; Utilizing the abundant wind and solar energy resources in the region, the company actively develops the new energy industry represented by integrated gas-solar power, clean alternative, and hydrogen production from renewable energy, and strives to forge a new energy development industrial base in Western China. The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) specifies that the Yumen Oilfield’s focus will shift from traditional energy production and consumption to comprehensive resource development and utilization, focusing on promoting the “distributed development, clean utilization and multi energy complementarity” of solar energy and hydrogen energy, giving priority to the pilot project of the distributed application of photovoltaic, pushing forward geothermal energy utilization and associated ore exploration, advancing the layout of new hydrogen production business, studying photovoltaic and solar-thermal power generation and energy storage technologies. The company plans to develop five key new energy projects and strives to develop Yumen Oilfield into a pioneer of PetroChina’s new energy business, providing strong guarantee for realizing energy transformation and high-quality development. 

At present, in accordance with the development policy of “quality, efficiency and sustainability”, Yumen Oilfield actively implements the four strategies of “simultaneously developing oil and gas, encouraging innovation, developing market and building a quality workforce”, striving to achieve the goal of “oil and gas production of more than 1 million tons per year and taking the lead in building a hundred-year oilfield”, so as to make the banner of “oil cradle” fly forever under Qilian mountain.