"Prophet", "Soybean Milk and Fried Bread Stick", "Fireworks" and "Wings of Dreams" ...

Young Chinese college students are full of imagination and creativity, as were the names of their teams in the 2nd National Petroleum Geology Competition, a two-day national event held in Beijing from Oct 21 to 22.

“The competition inspires our innovative thinking and capability,” said Li Zhong, the team leader of a five-member group, “Brand New and Totally Different”, from the Beijing-based China University of Petroleum (CUP).

Shan Honghong (right), Party secretary of China University of Petroleum-Beijing, presents awards to instructors of the 2nd National Petroleum Geology Competition. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

His team - consisting of five master's degree candidates - won the outstanding team award in the competition, which attracted over 600 students in 83 teams from 16 colleges and universities around the country.

This year, five teams from the CUP-Beijing made it to the final rounds and collected many awards.

As for Yan Zhengdong and his team members, who are just junior students, it’s not an easy task to compete with graduates and PhD candidates from other schools, but he said “we have our own advantages, such as more flexible ways of thinking and a good state of mind.”

The team leader from Yan’an University said his group has learnt to be more professional and confident from observing other groups.

A contestant demonstrates his work at the National Petroleum Geology Competition. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Three months’ preparation for the competition, though full of sleepless nights and huge pressure, left a deep and pleasant memory on him.

Shan Honghong makes a speech at the awards ceremony. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shan Honghong, Party secretary of CUP-Beijing, said talents in petroleum geology are significant in the development of China’s energy sector.

She said the national competition offers a horizon-expanding, innovative, and hands-on opportunity for students in that major.

As one of the first institutes of higher learning focused on petroleum since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the university, according to Shan, carries the mission to cultivate more such talents for the country’s energy industry.

Contestants on stage at the petroleum geology knowledge contest. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Qin Peng, from Yangtze University in central China's Hubei province, is graduating next year and was quite busy preparing his thesis during the final competition.

“I finished a lot of work for the competition by staying up late, and it’s really not very easy to make it to the final round,” he said.

“We all want to show what we have learnt over the past few years, and also want to make up for the gaps,” he said when interviewed by campus journalists after the competition.

Jin Zhijun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Sinopec Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, makes a speech. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jin Zhijun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Sinopec Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, said energy will be more clean and low-carbonized under the driving force of technological innovation and stricter environmental protection.

The future of China’s energy structure, in this sense, will be in sustaining transformation, he said.

Talents are the core competitiveness of a company and the competition serves as a great opportunity for cooperation between schools and enterprises and promotes talent cultivation, he added.

Co-organized by the petroleum geology committee of the Chinese Petroleum Society, the petroleum geology committee and Institute of Geological Education Research of the Geological Society of China, and CUP-Beijing, the competition leads nationally in its field.

Most of the subjects of the competition derived from front-line production, according to the organizers.

The CUP-Beijing, the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Sinopec Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute and the Research Institute Of CNOOC co-host the competition.