Yumen Oilfield, 1939: China’S First Modern Petroleum Base

Chapter 4 Yumen Oilfield, 1939: China’s First Modern Petroleum Base

1 Looking for Oil at the Foot of the Qilian Mountains

First, let us talk about the origin of the name of Yumen, or “Jade Gate.” In an- cient times, the area now known as Hetian or Hotan 和田 in Xinjiang produced what is traditionally known as “Khotan jade.” When jade was transported to the interior, it had to pass this place where the imperial officials set up check points for inspection, hence the name Yumen. Yumen Oilfield is situated at the northern slope and foot of the Qilian Mountains 祁连山, approximate- ly 100 km from Yumen and 80 km from Jiuquan. On a clear day, one can see Yumen Oilfield from Jiayuguan, the last western pass of the Great Wall, which is 90 km away. The elevation is around 2,500 m. As early as the Western Jin dynasty (265–316), our ancestors had discovered oil here. Li Daoyuan 郦道元 (470–527) of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534) noted in his Commentary on the Waterways: “The mountain in the south of Yanshou County in Jiuquan produces spring water … The water has fat like meat sauce that, when put in a container, first appears yellow and then black. It does not congeal, and it burns extremely bright; it is not unlike grease, but is inedible … it is called mineral paint (shiqi 石漆).” There are records throughout subsequent dynasties of the oil in this area. When he sat in command of Jiuquan, the famous Qing dynasty general Zuo Zongtang 左宗棠 (1812–1885) sent for someone to fetch an oil sam- ple in Yumen to be sent to France for chemical analysis. The quality of the oil was found to be ideal, but he did not have the right equipment at the time for developing and using this resource.

2 Weng Wenhao, the First Geologist to Survey Yumen

Based on their findings, they wrote China’s first petroleum geology report. In 1928, the Gansu government sent the geologist Zhang Renjian 张人鉴 to Yumen to investigate oil, and he submitted a detailed proposal to build an oilfield and refinery.

3 Geologist Sun Jianchu Thrice Investigates Yumen

In the 1930s, a geologist from the Central Geological Survey, Sun Jianchu 孙健初 and his group went to Yumen three times to investigate oil, the first time in 1934 and 1935. He and Zhou Zongjun and others traveled to the moun- tainous region in the western part of Gansu and the northeastern part of Qinghai, but due to unrest, they could not penetrate it deeply. The second time was in June 1937, when the preparatory office of the China Kerosene Exploration Company organized an expedition to the northwest that was led by Shi Youming 史悠明 and geologist Sun Jianchu; they were accompanied by two Americans, the noted geologist Dr. James Marvin Weller and the engineer Dr. Frederic A. Sutton. In October 1937, while traveling westward from Jiuquan, they found oil in Baiyang River 白杨河 in Yumen County and Shiyou River 石油河 in Laojunmiao 老君庙. During their voyage they saw three peasants skimming oil off the Shiyou River by the old temple to Taishang Laojun (the deified Laozi) south of Yumen (from which the name of the place, Laojunmiao, derives). After a detailed investigation, Weller and his team wrote, in their exploration report:

In this district … development costs will be very high, and if oil pros- pecting here is to be considered as strictly a business proposition, most careful consideration must be given to all of the factors involved in development, production, refining, and marketing aspects before a decision is made to proceed further. If, on the other hand, the development of an oilfield in the northwest part of China is required for national defense, to be accomplished at any cost, the Shih Yu Ho [Shiyou River] anticline should certainly be drilled…. [E]ven with the utmost dispatch and the best of luck, it is likely that at least two years would be required to drill the first wells and install a small refinery.1

On April 18 and 19, 1938, Weller and Sun Jianchu reported twice in Hankou to Weng Wenhao, who was then the Minister of Economic Affairs and the director of Central Geological Survey. Weller’s geological writings fully reflect the scientific spirit of a geologist seeking truth from facts, and he was generous in recognizing the contributions of Chinese geologists, like Sun Jianchu, who had done exploratory work before him.

1 J. Marvin Weller, Caravan Across China: An American Geologist Explores the Northwest, 1937– 1938, edited by Harriet Weller (San Francisco: March Hare Publishing, 1984), 235–36.