Source: PEKING REVIEW Vol.1 No.4, March 25, 1958
On the night of March 15 pandemonium broke, loose in Peking’s Institute of Petroleum: a rich oilfield had been discovered in the central part of Szechuan Province in south-west China.
When the news came through over the wireless many of the students were still working away at their tatsepao for the campaign against waste and conservatism and quite a few were already in bed. But in a few minutes, to the beating of gongs and even pots and pans, several thousand, including the head of the school and the professors, gathered in the mess hall to celebrate this important discovery which the students aptly described as “China’s second Baku.” The Karamai oilfields in the Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the far west are the first.
The Institute’s students and teachers had good cause for celebration. Graduates of the Institute were on the survey teams in Szechuan and the discovery opens new vistas for the students and the country as a whole.
This new and rich oil strike lies between Wusheng and Yuehchih Counties. On March 12 more than 40 tons of oil gushed out of a test well in 40 minutes and a similar amount out of another well the next day. On March 14, 189 tons of oil gushed out from this same well in 2 hours 18 minutes. In another well gas and oil gushed out in plenty. All three test wells were sunk at widely different places in an area stretching over 2,200 square kilometres. According to the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, these gushers arc the biggest in China’s history.
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