State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploration
As the first state key laboratory in the upstream field of China's oil and gas industry, the State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploration was applied jointly by Chengdu University of Technology and Southwest Petroleum University in 1988. It was established in 1990 with the approval of the State Planning Commission and the State Education Commission and officially opened to the public in 1995 after the state-level acceptance. In 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2017, the Lab passed the evaluations by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Lab is the only state key laboratory located outside Beijing and in western China covering all the disciplines of oil and gas exploration and development. Its supporting disciplines, "Geological Resources and Geological Engineering" and "Oil and Gas Engineering", have been included in the "world first-class disciplines at world first-class universities" in China. The four disciplines supported by the Lab, "Geoscience", "Engineering", "Chemistry", and "Materials Science", have entered the top 1% of the ESI world ranking. Exploring at the world's frontier of science and technology and focusing on the State's major strategic needs for energy, the Lab targets complex oil and gas, deep-sea oil and gas, and unconventional oil and gas resources such as shale gas, coalbed gas, and natural gas hydrates in China, especially in western China. In the applied basic research, the Lab pursues achievements in both basic research and technological innovation and strives to solve key scientific and technological issues in the field of oil and gas exploration and development, in an attempt to make significant breakthroughs in forward-looking basic research and leading original achievements. There are five major research fields as follows: (1) dynamics of oil and gas bearing basins and theory of oil and gas accumulation; (2) geological theory and prediction methodology and technologies of oil and gas reservoirs; (3) theory and methodology for development and exploration of complex oil and gas reservoirs; (4) theory and key technologies for drilling and completion of complex oil and gas reservoirs; and (5) theory and key technologies for deep-sea gas hydrate development.
Based on the "Petroleum Geology and Exploration" (the only one in this field), one of the first national key disciplines approved in 1988, the Lab covers four primary discipline doctoral programs for "Geology", "Geological Resources and Geological Engineering", "Oil & Gas Engineering", and "Geophysics", one doctoral degree conferring center for "Resources and Environment", and three postdoctoral research stations for “Geology”, "Geological Resources and Geological Engineering" and “Geophysics”. The Lab is currently an important base for high-level scientific research, academic exchange, and high-level talent training in this discipline field in China.
The Lab has 96 full-time researchers in nine research teams: (1) material basis of oil and gas accumulation (with a focus on oil and gas reservoir geology); (2) oil and gas structure and dynamics of oil and gas accumulation; (3) geological evaluation of oil and gas reservoirs (with a focus on the evaluation of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs); (4) geochemical evaluation of oil and gas (with a focus on the geochemical evaluation of oil and gas reservoirs); (5) geophysical prediction theory and technology of oil and gas; (6) oil and gas geology & engineering integration and equipment; (7) exploration, development, and utilization of geothermal energy and geological carbon fixation; (8) enrichment mechanism of new energy minerals and separation and extraction technologies; and (9) energy conversion and storage technologies and materials.
The Lab is well-equipped with experimental instruments and devices for oil and gas exploration and development, various testing and analysis technologies, as well as the following ten public experimental platforms: (1) physical property testing and analysis platform for conventional reservoirs; (2) comprehensive testing platform for unconventional reservoir parameters; (3) reservoir microstructure and composition analysis platform; (4) rock geochemistry testing and analysis platform; (5) organic geochemistry testing and analysis platform; (6) experimental platform for structural physical simulation and chronology; (7) comprehensive testing platform for petrophysical parameters under formation conditions; (8) testing platform for oil reservoir physics, fluid phase, and seepage mechanics; (9) testing platform for lithomechanics, operating fluid, drilling, and completion; and (10) numerical simulation and data processing center. Since systematic testing methods in the Lab have provided powerful support for scientific research, opening, sharing, and high-level talent training, it is one of the experimental research bases for oil and gas exploration and development in China.
The Lab is committed to researching and developing a complete range of new theories, methods, technologies, and equipment applicable to the exploration and development of complex oil and gas reservoirs, contributing to China's oil and gas security. So far, the Lab has undertaken a large number of projects under National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National High-tech Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) and National Program on Key Basic Research Project of China (973 Program), national special oil and gas projects, provincial and ministerial projects, and horizontal cooperation projects of major oil and gas regions in China and some foreign countries. Meanwhile, the Lab has made great progress in the studies of formation, evolution, and large-scale oil and gas accumulation of large basins in western China, the formation mechanism and evaluation of carbonate reservoirs, the genetic mechanism, evaluation, and prediction of tight sandstone reservoirs, the geological evaluation and "dessert" prediction of shale gas, the formation mechanism and condensate oil and gas accumulation law of metamorphic rocks of ancient buried mountains in eastern China, the geophysical prediction and fluid identification of reef beach and fracture-cave type reservoirs, the design and development of personalized drill bits, the safe deep-sea drilling, the design and development of high-power fracturing pumps, the integrated evaluation of geology and engineering, the downhole robot, the intelligent drilling and completion, etc., strongly supporting the growth in oil & gas reserve and production in China.
The Lab actively carries out academic exchanges and international cooperation. At present, it has established stable academic cooperation relationships with universities and scientific research institutions in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The Lab offers posts for distinguished professors, chair professors and young scholars under the Changjiang Scholar Program, and opens funds and posts for visiting scholars and guest (part-time) researchers (experimental technology personnel) to attract outstanding domestic and foreign experts and scholars for high-level scientific research and experimental technology development.
We warmly welcome domestic and foreign experts and scholars to have academic exchanges and scientific research with the Lab.
