Xinjiang Oilfield focuses itself on the natural gas resources of 6.5×1012m3 in the Junggar Basin and comes up with the strategic plan for production of 10 billion cubic meters to construct an synergistic system with integration of production, supply,storage and marketing, aiming to establish a “super energy basin” which is able to secure energy supply and fuel low-carbon development. This article systematically elaborates the resources basis, implementation pathways and supporting measures of the strategy and reveals its roles in promoting the green transition of economy in Northern Xinjiang and optimizing the nation’s energy deployment. Based on the study, (1) the annual production is increased at the pace of 5×108m3-10×108m3-15×108m3-25×108m3. The efforts are made for breakthroughs in the expanded exploration areas in 2025. With the proven reserves concentrated in 2026-2027, the productivity in 2028 will be constructed in three steps and the plans are formulated to accelerate natural gas development, striving to make the annual production top 100×108m3 in 2028. (2) Xinjiang Oilfield will be committed to five backbone innovation projects to raise the production at different dimensions and levels. They are the “ballast stone” project to keep production stable in the old gas areas, the “growth pole” project to increase production in the super-deep layers, the “growth point” project to improve performance of compact gas production, the“ new blue sea” project to expand coal-rock gas production, and the “gas storage group” project to adjust the peak by means of 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas. (3) The efforts will be focused on accelerate breakthroughs in technology and economic performance on the basis of the three main assurance mechanisms--breakthroughs in exploration and development technological bottlenecks, perfection of the synergistic management system, and formulation of the preferential policies. The 10-billion-cubic-meter natural gas production project is the key part to establish the Junggar Basin as “the 5000×104t super energy basin.” It not only promotes the energy structural transition in Northern Xinjiang but also displays a great significance of green, low-carbon and high-quality development. In addition, the project provides a powerful support for the nation’s energy independence and realization of the “dual carbon” goals.

China is rich in shale oil and gas resources but faces a series of challenges in this area, such as technological gap, lack of the economic evaluation system, shortage of market mechanisms and some external interference. Therefore, development progress is unmatched with resource endowment. Led by the development conceptions of creation, synergy and deregulation and based on development of Zhaotong shallow-layer shale gas and Da’an area, western Chongqing deep-layer shale gas, Zhejiang Oilfield came up with the strategy focusing on improvement of EUR, improvement of performance and efficiency and reduction of investment cost, thus aiming at its internal revenue rate. The company made the efforts to study the path for realization of China’s shale oil and gas revolution. Zhaotong shallow-layer shale gas development was based on localized technological innovation, flexibility of pilot experiment, reform of the gas prizing mechanisms and synergy of industrial chain to bring about the transition from conventional mode to priority of economic performance. As for Da’an area, western Chongqing deep-layer shale gas development, EUR was raised by means of detailed technological research while synergy of full industrial chain and market-orient operation reduced the cost for higher efficiency with the drilling period and single-well drilling expense dramatically lowered. The platform cumulatively saved about 20 million yuan thanks to modernization of the liquid control and sand lifting technology. In the future time, Zhejiang Oilfield will further promote development of technological revolution on the basis of engineering innovation. The study indicates that localized technological innovation, synergy of full industrial chain, the “put economic performance first” development mode, application of market mechanisms and preferential policies are the critical path for China’s large-scale shale oil and gas development.

This article focuses on the background that the global energy situation is experiencing in-depth adjustment and driven by technological revolution. It makes a systematic analysis of the long-term global energy transition trend as well as China’s energy industrial development in the 15th Five-year Plan period. The study indicates that global energy transition is likely to have two evolution routes--“Balanced Transition Scenario” (BTS) and “Accelerated Net-zero Scenario” (ANS). According to the prediction by Sinopec Economics & Development Research Institute Co. Ltd., BTS has a higher feasibility (the 2℃ temperature control goal). Against this background, the proportion of renewable energy will account for 51.8 percent by 2060. At the same time, the coal transition trend is gradual reduction of coal consumption and transformation into clean energy. The petroleum transition trend is de-carbonization and serves as petrochemical feedstocks while natural gas plays a role of transition energy to support the energy transformation process. Meanwhile, hydrogen, CCUS and new-type energy storage function as important supplements. In a short term, the American-European energy transition will be shifted to pullback in shrinkage from a high-toned leader. International petroleum companies will concentrate themselves again on fossil energy. China’s primary energy consumption growth is 3 percent in the 13th Five-year Plan period, 4 percent in the 14th Five-year Plan period, 2 percent in the 15th Five-year Plan period and less than 1 percent in the 16th Five-year Plan period. Of those, the 15th Five-year Plan period is the critical stage of China's energy industrial transition. In the time before the 15th Five-year Plan period, the energy self-sufficient rate was raised to 85 percent, mainly stimulated by the preferential policies, with the electric power consumption scenario expanded. During the 15th Five-year Plan period and the following time, replacement of high-carbon energy by low-carbon energy is internally driven by the industry, with the remarkable achievements made in replacement of coal by industrial gases and replacement of oil by transportation electricity. In addition, the oil refining capacities enters into a platform period (the additional capacity is between 3000×104t/a and 4000×104t/a, mainly from the large-scale integrated oil refining enterprises). The oil consumption of chemical industry becomes the key area of oil consumption (with an additional ethylene capacity of 2600× 104t/a and an additional PX capacity of 996×104t/a).

Corporate soft science is a key theoretical tool for making strategic decisions and managerial innovation. Construction of this system has become an important link to improve the company’s core competitiveness. This article focuses on connotations of corporate soft science and construction of the system without being limited to the traditional single-dimensional research paradigm. It makes an in-depth study of this area from four interconnected dimensions--disciplines, academics,achievements and discourse. Based on elaboration of connotations and characteristics of those systems and their coupling relations and combined with the strategic plans and managerial innovation cases of specialized research institutions and innovation-type enterprises, the article concretely analyzes the effects and performance in optimizing decision-making process,reduction of operational risks and stimulation of innovation motivation thanks to synergistic construction of the “four main system.” The purpose is to provide the systematic and scientific construction mindset and applicable practice instructions for corporate soft science research, thus further improving the level of corporate soft science research and promoting sustainable innovation-based development.

Systematic reform of and intelligent construction of sci-tech information work were the important measures for largescale oil and gas field enterprises to push ahead scientific and technological innovation and develop new-quality productivity. In response to the paradigm shift in sci-tech information in the big data era and the current difficulties and based on the new demand for active service model, AI empowerment and synergy sharing, Xinjiang Oilfield should reconstruct the oilfield information system through a series of measures, such as reform of work model, innovation of information channels, enhanced application of AI technology and establishment of big data platform for information. Focusing on complexity of the oil and gas industrial knowledge system, dependency on experts’ experience and the climbing demand for intelligence, the study proposes to construct the “wisdom+intelligence” work model which combines the experts’ experience with the big data and AI technology, thus modernizing the traditional system into the intelligent sci-tech information system positioned as supporting strategic decision-making and technological research as well as synergistic innovation. The oil and gas field enterprises should highlight the exploration and development knowledge sharing platform and concentrate efforts on construction of the multidimensional information-collecting system, the distributed synergistic sci-tech information platform, and the experts-based think tank platform in different stages. Meanwhile, it is necessary to enhance intelligent analysis of information, optimize information products and perfect the submission system. Intelligent transformation of the sci-tech information system will provide powerful support for the oilfields in the sci-tech innovation and strategic decision-making areas.

Since the year of 2019, Tarim Oilfield has made research efforts for geophysical business management focusing on the “four production processes” including seismic acquisition and seismic processing. The company continually perfected the management system, optimized the management process and enhance management innovation, making standardization and speciality of geophysical business management rising continuously. To bring about high-quality geophysical management under an oil company model, Tarim Oilfield established the intelligent business platform to realize online management over the whole process. The management process for the key projects were optimized under a series-parallel-control model while the research on the super-deep dual complicated area project was operated in parallel with progressive processing, initially forming the new geophysical management model meeting the current exploration and development demand. After adoption of the new management model, the work efficiency of the scientific researchers was improved substantially. In addition, the model also effectively raised the geophysical management efficiency, obviously improved the processing and interpretation quality, made important breakthroughs in exploration of the deep to super-deep layers and accelerated geophysical work for higher quality and performance. Therefore, this management model can put into wide application.

Shengli Oilfield, as a typical old oilfield in East China, has experienced more than six decades of exploration and development. The geological reserves of more than 6×108t have not been brought under development for the reason of economic performance. Facing a series of difficulties, such as low-grade reserves, high cost for development and limited engineering process, Sinopec Shengli Oilfield Company and Sinopec Oilfield Service Shengli Corporation were engaged in strategic cooperation and innovated the “risks sharing for win-win cooperation” oilfield development mechanism. They came up with three differential cooperative models centering geology-engineering integration--overproduction sharing model, overproduction+ premium sharing model and profit--forming a system of solutions for the different reservoir types and different development stages. Under the new system, the companies promoted technological iteration and innovation, upgraded equipment and facilities and improve managerial integration, making breakthroughs in development of the difficult-to-produce reserves. As the result of collaboration, the reserves of 2.4×108t were put into production while the 380×104t productivity was newly constructed. The annual drilling speed was increased 80 percent and the daily single-well oil production was 1.1 tons higher as compared to the conventional blocks. The balanced oil price dropped to US$46.9 per barrel on average from US$92.4 per barrel. Adoption of the geology-engineering integration models for cooperative production can effectively solve the bottleneck in development of lowgrade reservoirs in old oilfields, create a widely-applicable“ Shengli model” and help China's old oilfields find a scientific way to keep production stable.

Against the background of both global energy transition and digital transformation, the new generation of AI technology will display a great potential in the oil exploration area. This article analyzes the panorama of new-generation AI development and the basic characteristics of AI in the oil and gas exploration area. It elaborates the AI opportunities in the areas of geophysics, logging, and reservoir prediction, including improvement of seismic data processing and interpreting efficiency, accuracy logging data processing accuracy and intelligence, and enhancement of prediction accuracy for the reservoir attributes. However, the new generation of AI technology also faces a series of challenges, such as data quality and diversity issues, model interpretability and inadequate credibility, barriers for understanding of complicated technical terms, technological integration and difficulties for cross-disciplinary cooperation, and safety and privacy protection. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the intelligent data basement, design the interpretation framework driven by the mechanisms, make knowledge modelling in the structural area, and construct the technology-talent-mechanism synergistic system. Based on in-depth integration of geology,geophysics and AI technology, oil and gas exploration is hopefully put into more intelligent, high-efficiency and accurate operation, thus injecting new vigor into sustainable energy industrial development.

The United States has developed a mature technological system for shale oil development and established a largescale operational model in this area, providing China rich geological and engineering experience in shale oil exploration and development. However, the benchmark analysis of the US shale oil cost is insufficient and superficial in China. Based on the related investigation and analysis, the main influential factors of the US shale oil cost include the resource and geographical conditions, development stages and external economic conditions. Based on the structure of the cost item, shale oil cost can be classified into full-cycle cost, half-cycle cost and development cost, of which the full-cycle cost is comparable to China’s total cost to a certain extent. Generally speaking, the US shale oil cost is on the rise. Currently, the full-cycle cost is about $60 per barrel on average, lower than China’s total shale oil cost. To promote China’s large-scale shale oil development and help the nation make scientific decisions, it is necessary to benchmark the China-US shale oil costs in detail according to regions and development stages, establish the assessment and examination system for the total cost in relations with the oil prices, policies and development stages, and strengthen technological and managerial innovation for cost control and efficient development.

Oil and gas transmission pipelines are the nation’s energy lifelines. Operational safety of those pipelines is directly related to energy efficiency, ecological environment and public security. The pipeline accidents occasionally happened in recent years owing to corrosion, damage from the third party and geological disasters. They reflected that there were some deficiencies of the safety-protecting system in the areas of monitoring, early warning and emergency response. This article systematically elaborates the progress in research of pipeline safety protection and analyzes the development momentum of anti-corrosion technology, leakage monitoring, intelligent early warning, safety control, emergency response and informationization construction. It also discusses current execution of the country’s relative laws, regulations and system of standards. The study indicates that protection of pipeline safety in the future will have a development trend for integration of intelligence, refinement and legal rules. To bring about “substantial safety” of tenacious pipelines, it is necessary to consolidate synergy among technology, laws and regulations and construct the modernized full life-cycle and closed safety-protecting system for pipelines.

Against the background of the “dual carbon” goals, how to bring about green and low-carbon transition becomes a mandatory question facing the oil and gas enterprises. Integration development is an important measure for realization of the “dual carbon” goals, maintenance of the nation’s energy security and acceleration of energy transition. This article reviews the existing offshore engineering experience of the traditional energy companies, the offshore emergency response system and the complete upstream and downstream industries and takes into account the constructed onshore electrical projects and the practice in this area. Based on the differential advantages of geographic and space overlap between offshore wind power and oil and gas resources, the article summarizes and analyzes the mindset and development model for integration of offshore oil and gas exploration and development with offshore wind power. A plan for development bases was formulated for integration of oil, gas and wind power, which was named “two bays and one zone.” The study points out that the development model should be focused on integration of offshore and onshore electric power, integration of distributed power supply, integration of deepwater power supply and hydrogenation and integration of deepwater wind power productivity chain. The efforts should be concentrated on oilfield green power replacement in the Bohai Sea, construction of integrated energy system in the Beibu Gulf, deepwater wind power and hydrogenation in East Guangdong and distributed wind power supply. In consideration of the company’s integration development conditions, the article proposes to take into full account the nation’s energy security and carbonreducing demand, accelerate integration of onshore power facilities and offshore wind power and promote technological innovation for deep-water wind power.

China is abundant in sandstone oil reservoirs. How to bring about secondary development and application of resources after long-term recovery is an issue to be solved urgently in the oil industry. This article focuses on the innovative measure for construction of sandstone oil reservoirs into oil storage depots. It takes into account the current conditions of China’s energy demand, inadequacy of the existing storage system and individual characteristics of sandstone oil reservoirs. From a number of dimensions, such as guarantee of energy security, optimization of resource utilization, promotion regional economic development and reduction of environmental impact, this article elaborates the key roles of constructing sandstone oil reservoirs into oil storage depots in the country’s strategic energy arrangement. It also discusses a series of key technologies, such as accurate evaluation of oil reservoirs, high-efficiency injected production process, reliable seal, intelligent monitoring as well as the construction roadways including preliminary selection, project design, engineering construction and operational maintenance. In addition, it comes up with some development strategies like guidance through policies and technological innovation. The study indicates that construction of sandstone oil reservoirs into oil storage depots not only improves China’s capability against energy crises but also promotes sustainable oil industrial development, thus showing remarkable economic, social and environmental performances and providing the new mindset for China’s long-term energy industrial development.