Cover Story：Drilling site of Yiye-2 well. Yiye-2 well is located in the southeast of Yichang City, Western Hubei Province. The well, aiming at the organic-rich shale gas of Late Ordovician Wufeng and Early Silurian Longmaxi Formation, is the first horizontal well drilled in middle Yangtze region. An industrial gas flow was discovered after hydraulic fracturing, and the reservoirs of Longmaxi shale have overpressure characteristics, which indicates a major breakthrough of Early Silurian shale gas exploration in the new area. These achievements have formed a new pattern of shale gas exploration in southern China, and contributed to the construction of Yangtze River Economic Belt. The research achievement led by Professor CHEN Xiao-hong, Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey, in com-bination with a number of units in China, ranks the second among “Top Ten Scientific and Techno-logical Progresses of China Geological Survey and Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in 2017”. For details see pp. 257-268 of this issue. (Photo by CHEN Xiao-hong)
