Worked in Changqing Oilfield for many years, the cause of suicide is still unknown. PetroChina said that he died due to work pressure and family reasons

A bureau-level executive of PetroChina committed suicide.Sources told Caixin that Zhou Zongqiang, general manager and deputy party secretary of CNPC Bohai Drilling Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Bohai Drilling), committed suicide by jumping into a river on October 30.

Zhou Zongqiang’s latest public appearance was on October 26. On that day, he went to Bohai Drilling Downhole Operation Branch to participate in the final meeting of QHSE (Quality Health Safety Environmental Protection) audit and grading, and delivered a speech. As of press time, Zhou Zongqiang was still the leader of Bohai Drilling Company.column.Bohai Drilling is directly under the management of China National Petroleum Corporation. It was established on February 27, 2008 by the reorganization of the drilling business of the former Dagang Oilfield Group Corporation and the North China Petroleum Administration Bureau. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation and is headquartered in Binhai, Tianjin.new area.

The reason for Zhou Zongqiang's suicide is still unknown.An internal obituary of PetroChina explained that Zhou Zongqiang died due to work pressure and family reasons.

Zhou Zongqiang, 54 years old (born in 1964), has worked in the PetroChina system for many years. He has been the deputy general manager and safety director of PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Branch since at least 2003;Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee; began to appear as the general manager of Bohai Drilling in early 2017.

As a technical cadre, Zhou Zongqiang was admitted to Daqing Petroleum Institute (now Northeast Petroleum University) in 1980. He has the title of professor-level senior engineer and has won many awards such as China Petroleum and Chemical Automation Industry Science and Technology Awards.

Zhou Zongqiang has worked in Changqing Oilfield for many years.Changqing Oilfield is headquartered in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, and its working area is in the Ordos Basin. In recent years, its oil and gas production has continued to rise. In 2013, it became the oil and gas field with the largest oil and gas equivalent production in China.It has total assets of about 39 billion yuan.

However, Changqing Oilfield has also been involved in a series of corruption cases in PetroChina since 2013.In August 2013, Ran Xinquan, vice president of CNPC and general manager of Changqing Oilfield Branch, and Wang Daofu, chief geologist of CNPC and former general manager of Changqing Oilfield Company, were investigated, which was one of the preludes to Zhou Yongkang's corruption case.

Bohai Drilling is one of the eight oil service companies under CNPC. It mainly provides engineering and technical services for CNPC's domestic and foreign oil and gas exploration and development. It is currently an unlisted asset.Bohai Drilling has 19 businesses including engineering technology research, drilling, directional wells, etc., integrating petroleum tools, instruments, equipment research and development, manufacturing and technical services.In August 2018, Bohai Drilling held the 2018 leading cadre meeting. Zhou Zongqiang also gave a speech titled "Taking the Road of Quality and Benefit Development and Solidly Promoting Sustainable and Steady Development".■