Yalin Li
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| Latest company | BGP |
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SEG Reginald Fessenden Award 2024
Yalin Li is recognized with the SEG Reginald Fessenden Award because of his outstanding technological contribution to the geophysical industry with his remarkable innovation in land with complex near-surface conditions around the world. His impressive record of 60 published papers in various international journals, 51 patents, and 20 software copyrights have had a significant impact on the geophysical industry. In addition, he has been directly responsible for 12 oil reservoir discoveries and 16 gas reservoir discoveries.
Biography Citation for the Reginald Fessenden Award
by Öz Yilmaz, Alfred Liaw, Xianhuai Zhu, Allen Bertagne, and Chengbo Li
It is with great pleasure that we introduce Yalin Li of BGP, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), as the recipient of the 2024 SEG Reginald Fessenden Award. This honor recognizes his outstanding technological contributions to the geophysical industry, particularly his remarkable innovations in land seismic exploration in areas with complex near-surface and subsurface conditions worldwide.
Yalin is currently the chief geologist and professor-level senior engineer at BGP, a leading global provider of geophysical solutions in China. He received his bachelor’s degree in petroleum geology from the Chengdu Institute of Geology in 1986, his master's degree in geophysics from the Southwest Petroleum Institute in 1996, and his doctorate in geophysics from the Chengdu Institute of Technology in 1999. Since then, he has led seismic acquisition, processing, and interpretation research and production teams in foothill regions with complex geologic conditions at CNPC Sichuan Petroleum Administration Bureau (1999–2017), Tarim Oilfield Company (2018–2022), and BGP (2023–present).
Yalin has been instrumental in advancing seismic technologies in the Sichuan, Tarim, and Qaidam basins of western China, as well as other mountainous regions around the world. Over his career, he has led 15 oil and gas seismic scientific research projects and 290 oil and gas seismic acquisition, processing, and interpretation projects. His prolific output includes 60 published papers in international journals, 51 patents, and 20 software copyrights, all of which have profoundly impacted the geophysical industry. His work has directly contributed to the discovery of 12 oil reservoirs and 16 gas reservoirs.
Yalin’s achievements have been recognized with numerous honors from the Chinese state, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Notably, he received the State Science and Technology Invention Award in 2015 for his project titled "The technology and application of accurate seismic imaging and gas identification in complex foothills regions.” The GeoMountain software, designed for seismic acquisition, processing, and interpretation, developed by Yalin and his team, was recognized as a national strategic innovation product in China in 2013 and has been widely used in seismic exploration in mountainous areas having complex near-surface and subsurface conditions.
As vice president of exploration technology at Tarim Oilfield Company (2018–2022), Yalin spearheaded an innovative mega-project comprising 16 3D surveys over more than 9000 km² in the Kelasu foothills of northwestern China. This project was groundbreaking in its coordinated and systematic merging of several 3D surveys, encompassing near-surface velocity estimation, signal processing, and prestack depth migration.
Yalin has also been a great supporter of SEG activities in China. He has served as the technical program cochair for numerous SEG workshops, including the Seismic Imaging Workshop in Beijing (2018), the Foothills E&P Workshop in Chengdu (2019), and the Tarim Ultra-deep Oil and Gas Exploration Technology Workshop in Korla (2024). Through these workshops, he has shared his research results and technical methods with SEG members and young geoscientists in the oil and gas industry.
In recognition of his significant and lasting contributions to the field of geophysics, particularly in land seismic exploration under complex near-surface and subsurface structural conditions, Yalin Li is awarded the SEG Reginald Fessenden Award.