Daqing’s shale-oil story began with a different kind of well. In 1981, Ying12 became the first discovery well in the Gulong Sag mudstone-fracture reservoir, producing an industrial oil flow of 3.8 tonnes a day and 441 cubic metres of gas a day. The 2021 research paper then marks 1998 as an early horizontal-well experiment: Guping-1, completed with a screen, yielded a low 1.5 tonnes of oil a day. These milestones belong to separate wells and stages of exploration.
From the journal
Guye Youping-1: a shale-oil breakthrough in Daqing
A research paper traces Daqing’s shale-oil search from the 1981 Ying12 discovery to the 2019 trial result at Guye Youping-1.
In the same city · Daqing ↗A long search beneath the Songliao Plain
A different target, a different result
The paper places Daqing in a trial-breakthrough phase from 2018. Among four horizontal wells aimed at the advantageous lower part of the Qing-1 shale layer, Guye Youping-1 reached deep into the Gulong Sag and targeted laminated shale. Its reported high-yield industrial flow was 30.5 tonnes of oil and 13,032 cubic metres of gas per day. Those are the trial figures reported for the 2019 breakthrough, not a statement of the well’s present-day production rate. The result showed that oil could flow from the shale itself, opening a new chapter in the field’s exploration.