Karamay oilfield, the oil field in Karamay

From the city center of Karamay to Karamay Ghost Town in Wuerhe District of Karamay City, on the both sides of the 100km National Highway, you will see several sectioned oil fields rife with pumpjacks.

I was told that there are two kinds of pumpjacks. For thin oil, people use special steam to pump out the oil; for thick oil, people use water to pump out oil. The jumpjacks for thick oil look smaller than those of the pumpjacks using water for pumping out thin oil.

Another factor to differentiate this two kinds of jumpjacks is to see the tubes crisscrossing the field. If no tubes around the jumpjacks, then they are pumping water for thin oil. If there are plentiful tubes around, they are jumpjacks for thick oil.

Smaller sized jumpjacks for pumping thick oil using the steam through the tubes fixed above the oilfield.

A big sized jumpjack using water to pump thin oil ( no tubes around).