But as oil exploration becomes more complex, there is an urgent need to strengthen on-site management and improve production control with the help of new technology to boost productivity in an all-around way, said Cheng, who is also chief technology officer at Daqing Oilfield Co.

"Against this backdrop, we are vigorously promoting a three-step strategy of building a digital, smart and intelligent oilfield, with the first goal of a digital oilfield starting to take shape," Cheng said.

He added that the company has built a "smart brain"－a command center where technicians manage and control 120,000 oil and gas wells, 8,100 oil and gas stations, 100,000 km of oil and gas pipelines, and 30,000 km of electricity lines.

This is in sharp contrast to the situation in 1959, when the oilfield had just been discovered and the company's "command system "was nothing more than a telephone in a mud building.

Now, nearly 500,000 internet-connected devices to collect data are operational at the oilfield, and more than 10 billion sets of real-time data flow online every second. In the future, the data volume will see exponential growth, and more efforts are needed to improve the ability of data governance and data mining, Cheng said.

Daqing Oilfield Co's plan to build smart oilfields is also part of broader push by China to advance innovation in the traditional industry. In January, the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic regulator, and the National Energy Administration jointly released a 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for the energy sector.

The plan calls for the wider use of 5G, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, the internet of things, and big data by energy companies. It also highlights the need to upgrade equipment and facilities in oil and gas fields, pipeline networks and warehouses to enable flexible reception of data and efficient production.