A crowd cheered as the first gusher of crude oil erupted in an oilfield in Heilongjiang province on Sept 26, 1959. 

Daqing Oilfield, China's major oil base, produced 30.01 million metric tons of crude oil in 2020, according to Daqing Oilfield Co, a part of China's top oil producer China National Petroleum Corp.

The oilfield, located in Heilongjiang province, also produced 4.65 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2020.

In the 1950s, the newly founded People's Republic of China faced a shortage of crude oil, which brought great difficulties for the economy and national defense.

In February 1958, the government approved a directive shifting petroleum exploration eastward, and on Sept 26, 1959, a gusher of crude oil erupted from a little-known place in Heilongjiang.

The newly found world-class oilfield was given the name Daqing, meaning "great celebration", in honor of the coming 10th anniversary of the founding of the nation.

Soon more than 40,000 veterans, technical experts and oil workers gathered in Daqing to develop the oilfield. Their endeavors against all difficulties were later enshrined as the "iron man" spirit, named for model oilfield worker Wang Jinxi, who led Drill Team No 1205 and devoted his life to the development of the petroleum industry.

Just three years later, Daqing had reached an annual capacity of 5 million tons of oil, making the country basically self-sufficient.

The oilfield and its workers have inspired and symbolized the great changes in China's industrial development.

Over the past 61 years, Daqing has produced a total of about 2.43 billion tons of crude oil and paid nearly 3 trillion yuan ($460 billion) in taxes and charges.

It also became the world leader in oil recovery technology. Its recovery rate at Daqing's major sites exceeds 53 percent, 10 to 15 percentage points higher than other major oilfields around the world.

It has also become the largest center globally for research into tertiary oil recovery and the largest site in the world using the technology.

Daqing maintained annual crude output of more than 50 million tons from 1976 to 2002 and was hailed as a miracle in the history of oilfield development.

Since 2003, despite shrinking oil reserves, a common problem in older oilfields, Daqing has managed to stabilize its annual oil output by using state-of-the-art technology and improving efficiency.

The company is currently engaged in numerous energy projects overseas, including oil and gas fields, pipelines and power stations. Its oil exploration teams have visited 54 countries and regions, including the United States, Indonesia, Venezuela, Egypt and Sudan.

Overseas projects will become a new growth engine for the company, ranking it among leading international players, it said.