AWARDEE OF EARTH SCIENCES PRIZE

TIAN ZAIYI

Tian Zaiyi, a petroleum geologist, was born in Weinan, Shaanxi Province on Dec. 1919. He graduated from the Department of Geology, School of Science, Zhongyang University in 1945.For petroleum exploration and development of China, he worked as the chief geologist in many places such as Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Daqing, Dagang, Jianghan and Jilin, etc. From 1980 to now he is a professor of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development of China National Petroleum Company. He was elected the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1997.
Academician Tian Zaiyi was one of the important founders of Chinese petroleum exploration and the theory of hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation and exploration philosophy in continental facies. In 1950s, he first presented the tectonic setting and depositional materials of source rock in continental facies, which developed and perfected the theory of hydrocarbon generation in continental facies and scientifically predicted the potential areas of petroleum exploration in nonmarine basins in China. In the 1960s, he concluded that the organic matching of oil-forming geological conditions, such as generation, reservoir, cap rock, migration, trap and preservation, are the fundamental geological factors for seeking oil and gas fields. In the 1980s, he led and organized of the first oil and gas resource evaluation of China, which was a systematic and quantitative appraisal of oil and gas resources by using advanced geological theories, methods and technology and provided the basis for planning nationwide petroleum exploration. In the 1990s, he elaborated the principle and methods of sedimentary basin analysis. He was the first expert to introduce the theory of petroleum systems into basin analysis. He has proposed nine factors controlling oil and gas generation and distribution, ten items of basin analysis, with case studies of major sedimentary basins in China. In addition, he also made a deep research in lithofacies paleo-geography, petroleum resources evaluation and petroleum exploration techniques. His achievements greatly contributed to the discovery of Kalamayi, Daqing and Dagang oil field, and also the steady production of Jianghan and Fuyu oil field.
Tian Zaiyi has published more than 120 scientific papers and 8 monographs. In the past years, he has won many awards, such as National First Prize of S & T Progess, National First Prize of Natural Science, and Li Siguang Geoscience Researcher Prize, etc.