Introduction

Abstract

China occupies a major area of Eastern Asia and manifests a considerable variety of geographic and geomorphologie forms. Within its boundaries there flourished and developed some of the oldest civilizations in human history. In the spheres of technology and of utilization, the usage of metals dates back to the period of 2000 B.C. (Yang Zunyi et al., 1986). Technology continued to flourish in China through the centuries, and before 771 B.C. Chinese engineers had accomplished the feat of extracting hydrocarbons mechanically far in advance of other civilizations. Primitive tools were used to drill wells by hand (Li Kexiang, 1980). Confucius was among those who wrote of the drilling of deep wells for the recovery of salt brine, in the Sichuan basin of Southwest China about 600 B.C. (Owen, 1975): at depths of some 200 meters these wells were not only deep but also ultra-deep for their times. Strubell (1968) presented evidence that the drilling of a well specifically for gas took place also in the Sichuan basin at least as long ago as 211 B.C.