国内英语新闻:Across China: Largest oilfield revs up production to secure supply

HARBIN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- After climbing an iron ladder and mounting a 10-meter-high drilling platform, Ge Yifan, a driller in the Daqing Oilfield, keeps a close eye on the control room screen and uses a microphone to instruct his workmates cleaning mud off the platform.

Ge works in the 1205 Drilling Team in Daqing Oilfield, the country's largest oil production base in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"Since the oilfield resumed production on Feb. 11, we have been working around the clock to speed up oil production to mitigate the effects caused by the epidemic," said Zhang Jing, head of the drilling team.

Discovered in 1959, the oilfield has produced about 2.4 billion tonnes of crude oil over the past 60 years. Its overseas business projects have covered 26 countries and regions, with overseas market revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan (around 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) and overseas equity output exceeding 9 million tonnes.

"While fighting against COVID-19, our domestic and overseas colleagues have been making efforts to promote the resumption of oil production to ensure the domestic and global supply," said Xie Yuxin, manager of the market development department of the Daqing Oilfield of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

Since the epidemic outbreak, Daqing Oilfield has taken stringent prevention measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the work areas.

Visitors who enter an oil extraction plant on the oilfield production base are asked to get disinfected and have their body temperatures measured at the entrance.

"Start the No. 1 oil pump." "Roger." In a dehydration pump room of the plant, the only worker, Wang Zhongying, operates equipment following instructions from the command room.

"We have carried out information technology updates on equipment operations over the past years," said Zhao Shiqing, a worker of the plant. "It plays a significant role in reducing the gathering of employees during the epidemic."

"In the fight against COVID-19, everyone is a soldier. We will stick to our posts and make every effort to help secure the global oil supply chain," said Wang Hongchen, a project manager of Daqing Oilfield of CNPC in Indonesia.