AWARDEE OF EARTH SCIENCES  PRIZE

DAI JINXING

Abstract

Dai Jinxing was born on March 19, 1935 in Rui'an County, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Department of Geology, Nanjing University in 1961. From 1972 to the present he has worked in the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Petro-China. Since the 1970s he has mainly researched natural gas geology and geochemistry. From 1983 to 1998 he organized the state key science and technology project on natural gas geology and development over 4 consecutive terms. In 1995 he was elected the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Dai advocated and started geological research on coal-formed gas geology in China in the 1970s. He stressed that gas is the dominant hydrocarbon derived from coal measures rather than oil . From 1980 to 1990, he published 26 papers and works related to coal-formed gas, pointing out the most prospective target areas for coal-formed gas in the main basins in China. In the 1990s, he summarized 6 main controlling factors on the occurrence of large gas fields. His results were proven through exploration: the percentage of coal-formed natural gas within total proved natural gas reserves increased from 9% in 1980 to 61% in 2000, and the discovery of five large gas fields with proved geological reserves of over 1000×108 m3 over the next 15 years substantiated his predictions.
Dai established a system of geochemical indices for the discrimination of natural gases from different origins, which is now widely used in gas-source correlation and the determination of target beds.
From 1990 to 1992 he researched the occurrence of abiogenic natural gas in the eastern part of China, proving the existence of abiogenic gas based on abundant geochemical and geological evidence. He confirmed that the gas in twenty CO2 gas fields and one hydrocarbon gas field in the eastern part of China was derived from the mantle, and clarified the conditions surrounding its accumulation.
Dai has now published 168 papers and 21 works in China and abroad. He has been awarded as follows: the Prize of Prominent Individual in the State Key Science and Technology Project (three times), and the first-class National Natural Science Prize in 1987 and 1997 (both as the first contributor).