Runfar people have been working across China over the past decades, but a tough-minded team always works in the best interests of Runfa at Qinghai oilfield in the middle of desert, despite the highest altitude and the harshest environmental conditions.
Three years after the establishment of Runfar’s cold lake oil drilling area, Runfar people have set their footprints deep in the Gobi area of cold lake section 4. On a winter day, on a business trip to cold lake with my boss, I breathed earthy air amid overwhelming sandstorm and frozenly cold winds, following their footprints step by step and feeling what Runfar people called the helplessness at cold lake for the first time.
The compound looked even more elusive and isolated when looked from far away amid the sandstorm, surrounded by hills and gullies. After walking into the compound, sound of conversation was heard faintly amid booms of noisy power generators. Pushing the door open, I saw several colleagues sitting in a circle in a small and dim dormitory, discussing what they found during the morning patrol inspection right after the lunch. They debated in a heated yet pleasant atmosphere.
At 3:00 PM, the booms of car motors added noise to the compound, as production manager Wei Wenzhong planned for the afternoon’s activities after starting his obsolete car. Knowing the upcoming trip to the middle section for a repair assignment, I jumped onto their shabby car, excitedly,
With a high per-well output, the middle section is the main battlefield of the company, located on the southernmost part of the operating area and about 4 km away from the compound, half-jokingly called by colleagues as the border post. We took a 20-minute trip over a zigzag, bumpy path through hills and gullies before reaching there.
The oil wells are scattered around the middle section due to complicated terrains, distant from each other, currently powered only by a small diesel engine around the clock due to the seriously obsolete gas-fired power generator. At the cold lake, air temperature could fall to as low as -30 degrees Celsius during wintertime, frequently causing the diesel engine to break down. Once the diesel engine falls out of operation, the oil wells would be frozen, resulting in immeasurable loss. Therefore, constant care is required.
In the middle section, a newly-recruited technician Tang Chenggong, who is good at repair and maintenance of diesel engine, was stationed in the duty room, walking around well sites everyday, examining machines, adding water and oil and guarding the equipment and crude oil in oil tanks. When I saw him, he just came back from a patrol inspection, with a dust-covered face smiling at me and binoculars hung around her neck, just like a post guard. Shaking off the dust, he invited me to visit his duty room, a well-kept small room heated by a burning stove, without any decent furniture. It was apparent that he is a meticulous person.
With the guidance of Tang, we came to a malfunctioned well 543 due to equipment failure. After several repair attempts alone, Tang had to seek assistance from the compound. In order to restore production operations and minimize losses, area manager Du Pengfei and deputy manager Wei Wenzhong and oil worker Song Guofeng were called in. All of them are veteran members of the company, each having more than 5 years of work experience in the oilfield and capable to tell the conditions of each oil well in the operating area. According to them, they can even walk back to the compound through the bumpy paths, blindfolded. For ease of operation, they took off coats despite the frozenly cold winds, disassembling the diesel engine like a piece of cake. They squatted around a makeshift repair bench, with their hands or even faces stained by black crude oil and diesel. However, all tools and components were placed in order. Two hours passed, they began shaking after a series of activities ranging from inspection, disassembly, cleaning, replacement, installation, heating to testing. All of sudden, the booms of the diesel engine burst out. When I finally felt relieved, manager Wei asked Tang to stop the engine right away, believing the diesel engine is still problematic according to his multiyear experience. They once again repeated the previous examination steps before finding a critical part is worn out. With pool mobile phone signal, manager Wei rushed back to the compound and returned soon, before the engine was finally repaired. Everyone felt truly relieved at this moment.

At this moment, long after the sunset, manager Wei asked everyone to drain the residual oil and water from the engine, replace new oil, pack up the tools, clean up the site, and ensure thermal insulation of equipment and facilities as soon as possible. The oil field was restored to normal operation as the diesel engine was brought back alive. We watched each other in cheers, while several of us joked about clown-like appearance. As it became darker, we began travelling back to the compound, leaving the dim light from the duty room behind us, but the booms of diesel engine still lingered around our ears.
Back in the compound, I constantly recalled what we had gone through the afternoon, listening tentatively to the screaming cold wind and the booms of power generator. Sleepless, the harsh operating environment, the enthusiastic scenes of work and the laughers and jokes hovered around my mind.
I think it is exactly because of their hard work that the boring booms of machines sound like musical melody and it is because of their dedication that Runfar people are able to contribute valuable oil to the motherland with whatever they can do. Many thanks to them, as their opportunism and passion move me deeply and their dedication inspires me profoundly.
Pursuing excellence and benefiting all people is the call of duty that every Runfar employee responds to actively. Runfar people will bear in mind this spirit and corporate mission to continue devoting themselves to the northwestern part of the country, fighting through difficulties and embrace a brighter future with a mindset characterized by dedication and optimism.

General management department of Haixi Runfar Co., Ltd