Song of Karamay
6 min readKaramay City emerged, developed and became famous owing to oil, and her legend has gone through half a century with Song of Karamay.
Karamay is the only city in the world named after oil.”Karamay”is the phonetic translation of Uighur”black oil”and named after a group of natural bitumen mounds in the northeast of the city-Black Oil Mountain. On October 29,1955, the first oil well on the Black Oil Mountain spouted oil and was named Karamay oilfield which is the first large oilfield after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, In 2002, Karamay Oil Field had a crude oil production of over 10 million tons and became the first large oilfield with over ten million tons of crude oil production in China.
“That year，I drove groups of horses to seek grasslands，stopped my horses here andI looked far of the land:the vast Gobi was like a boundless sea of fire……”the Song of Karamay expressed the transformation of the”barren land without grass，water and traces of human presence”into”the miracle in the human world，the densely distributed oil wells are like boundless earth，and green trees，buildings and red flags spread all over fields.…oil wells are like forests，red flags are like flowers and the singing is like the sea…so colorful，so magnificent and so beautiful.…”
Yes，Karamay，the gem in the northwest China was once the Gobidesert without the trace of human，but now has become a beautiful city of rich modern atmosphere and humanity.Ai Qing，a famous poet，once eulogized Karamay:”The most desolate place has the greatest power；the deepest stratum has the most valuable liquid；the most silent warrior has the strongest heart.Karamay is a beauty in the desert.”
In northeastern Karamay and over 2 km away from the downtown，lies an”asphalt mound”.What flows out of the asphalt mound is not water but black oil.This is an important place where oil seepage of oilfield outcrops，a group of asphalt mounds form due to oil spills for many years.The largest one has a height of 13m and an area of 0.2km²，and the oil is precious low condensing oil.Due to crustal movements，rock broke and fractured，affected by strata pressure，underground oil constantly oozing to the surface from the rock fissures.Light fraction of oil became volatile，and the remaining thick liquid and sand piled and condensed to form this black oil mountain.Due to the surrounding desolate and harshenvironment，people had not paid attention to this for hundreds of years.On June 14，1955, 1219 Youth Team of the Drilling Department of Dushanzi Mining Bureau consisting of 36 workers from eight ethnic groups prepared for well drilling on the No.1 site which was at adistance of 5.5km to the Black Oil Mountain on the southeast.On July 6，drilling was started and on October 29，drilling was completed which symbolized the successful exploitation of Karamay oil field-the first major oil field after the founding of the PRC and openeda prelude to the great development of the petroleum industry in Xin jiang.
In 1958，Karamay City was built，and has jurisdiction over four administrative regions，namely，Dushanzi，Baijiantan and Urho with a total area of 7，733km² and a population of more than 400，000.
After that，Karamay has achieved fruitful results through the exploitation in 1950s，development in 1970s，soaring in 1980s and innovation in 1990s.Karamay today is no longer the primitive Black Oil Mountain but a complex oil exploitation area of over thousand miles.with Black Oil Mountain as the base，while radiatingto the directions of south，north and east.Today，Karamay-Dushanzi petrochemical base has become an important economic growth point in Xin jiang’s national economy.
Karamay is now experiencing the new rise of”world oil city”.Karamay is a modern and new oil industry city based on petroleum and petrochemical industries with rapid economic and social development，improved urban functions and thriving vitality.In 2002，the crude oil production in Karamay exceeded 10 million tons，becoming the first large oil field in western China with over 10 million tons of crude oil.In 2008，Xin jiang Oilfield comprehensively completed the transformation of a”digital oilfield”in the Junggar Basin and became the first digitized oil and gas field in China.In 2009，Dushanzi ten-million-ton refinery and one-million-ton-ethylene project were officially completed and commissioned, and listed in the “Top 100 Classic Projects for the 6oth Anniversary of People’s Republic of China”. Meanwhile, Dushanzi national strategic oil reserve of 3 million m², commercial crude oil reserve of 200 m³ were built and put into operation, Hutubi gas reserve of 4 billion m³ was under implementation. Perfect Karamay thickened oil processing and supporting project of 6 million tons were completed and put into operation, and refinery expansion project of ten million tons was started. In 2011, Karamay oil field produced 10.9 million tons of crude oil and 3.71 billion m³ of natural gas. Today, Karamay, has a complete and integrated petrochemical industry system including exploration and development of oil and gas, petroleum engineering and technical services, oil and gas gathering and transportation, refining and petrochemical, and research and development.The city’s GDP and per capita GDP rank first in Xin jiang and are in the forefront Chinese cities for consecutive years.
Today, Karamay is an important petroleum and petrochemical base in China, and a newindustrial city built in Xinjiang with great emphasis, enjoying unique development advantages. As China steps up the channel development for opening to the west, Karamay will become a transport hub which links the hinterland eastwards, connects the central and western Asia westwards, connects Novosibirsk developed regions of Russia northwards and connects southwards the traffic hub cities and the regional central cities of south Asia.Karamay is the bridgehead for China opening to the west, and has broad market and development prospect.
Oil has thoroughly changed the place once “having no water, no grass and no bird perches”. Karamay, in the Gobidesert is full of buildings, wide roads, running water, groups of trees and has changed into a ideal hometown that people all long for. However, people do not forget that Karamay which forms because of oil is a typical resourcebased city. The non-renewability of oil makes people in Karamay realize the importance of transformation of the oil city, therefore, year by year, the oil city becomes more and more verdant with new changes and new look. Black Oil Mountain became the first scenic spot and the Karamay Demon City of the Word Scenic Zone was formally opened in 2002. Karamay Oilfield became China’s industrial tourism demonstration site, and Karamay City won the “China Excellent Tourism City”.. Later, Karamay has won more and more honors,”National Sanitary City”,”China Habitat Environment Award”,”National Environmental Protection Model City”,”National Garden City”,”National Industrial Tourism Demonstration Site”,”China Outstanding Ecological and Cultural Tourism City”,”National Advanced Science and Technology City”,”China Outstanding Innovative City”,”National Model City of Persons with Disabilities”,”2012 China Top 200 Characteristics and Charming City”. The increase of honors means the fundamental change of Karamay’s ecological environment. Karamay is listed as “National Garden City”with the greening rate of 38.65% and public green area per capita being 12.2km².
In the new historical period, Karamay, as a ma jor petrochemical base China, and a key and new industrial city in Xinjiang, will work harder for the goal of building a world famous modern oil city with the”Xinjiang efficiency”with the spirit of “seizing every minute “and being enthusiastic and striving to build Karamay into a “world oil city”of vibrant economy, charming environment, prosperous and harmonious society and affluent life.
