Abstract: Effective development of hard-to-recover oil reserves is an important measure for the enhancement of oil development in China. The hard-to-recover reserves of low permeability and heavy oil in the Shengli oilfield are nearly 6×108 t, accounting for more than 10% of the national total. Effective development faces many challenges, such as a complex oil-water system, lack of supporting technologies, and low productivity. Sinopec has adopted the Shengli oilfield as a pilot project. After more than 2 years of practical cooperative development, a number of effective methods have been explored, such as “innovation of cooperative mechanism”, “searching for sweet spots in low-grade reserves”, “geology-engineering integration”, and “fine reservoir stimulation and increasing productivity”. This has preliminarily achieved the goal of “managing, recovering and producing” hard-to-recover oil reserves. The cumulative produced oil reserves are 4860×104 t, established productivity is over 50×104 t, the drilling cycle has been shortened by more than 60%, single well production has increased by about 40%, and the break-even oil price has dropped from 75 $/bbl to within 50 $/bbl. The initial practice of producing hard-to-recover oil reserves in the Shengli oilfield has formed a unique contracted productivity establishment plan and created an efficient model for geology-engineering integration across the whole industry chain. This has opened up a new direction for the sustainable development of mature oil areas with a high degree of exploration.