China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has announced that its Yuanshen-1 exploration well in the Sichuan Basin has reached a depth of 8866 m, beating the previous record in the Sichuan Basin set by its Rentan-1 well.
China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has announced that its Yuanshen-1 exploration well in the Sichuan Basin has reached a depth of 8866 m, beating the previous record in the Sichuan Basin set by its Rentan-1 well.
Yuanshen-1 well reached the deepest oil and gas formation in the Sichuan Basin as Sincopec hailed the potential of ancient carbonate rocks in the region.
To date, Sinopec’s deep natural gas resources in the Sichuan Basin in areas with mineral rights have reached 15 trillion m3.
The Yuanshen-1 well has reached the deepest hydrocarbon reservoir in the Sichuan basin – the mound-shoal complex of the platform marginal facies in Dengying Formation. During the exploration, the ultra-deep carbonate rock, buried at a depth of more than 8700 m still showed positive hydrocarbon evidence in the porous reservoir.
‘The large upper casing weighs 517 tonnes at ground level, which is a challenge to the rig’s lifting and casing capabilities,’ said Sinopec. ‘The ultra-high temperature in the deep earth also makes it challenging to maintain the drilling fluid’s stability and anti-pollution capability; coring at such depths is difficult and time-consuming. To combat these challenges, Sinopec has developed key technologies for ultra-deep drilling to support oil and gas exploration in deep and ultra-deep carbonate reservoirs.’
Sinopec has discovered the Puguang, Yuanba and Chuanxi gas fields, and to date its annual conventional gas production capacity from deep marine carbonate reservoirs has exceeded 12 billion m3.
Meanwhile, Sinopec has published the China Energy Outlook 2060, its first publicly released medium and long-term energy outlook, which includes the Chinese Government’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
China’s primary energy consumption is expected to peak at approx. 6.03 billion tonnes of standard coal between 2030 and 2035, and reduce to about 5.6 billion tonnes of standard coal in 2060. Energy-related carbon emissions are expected to peak at around 9.9 billion tonnes by 2030 after excluding the carbon sequestration of raw material energy use, and drop to 1.7 billion tonnes in 2060, achieving carbon neutrality through carbon capture usage storage (CCUS) technology and carbon sinks, among other methods.
The report details China’s energy consumption and carbon emission projections of stages leading to 2060.
Zhao Dong, president of Sinopec, said: ‘We hope to work with all partners to further strengthen academic exchanges and deepen all-round cooperation to promote more high-quality energy research and results, and contribute to accelerating the planning and construction of a new energy system and safeguard national energy security.’
