China's State-owned energy giant Sinopec announced on Tuesday a major breakthrough in natural gas exploration.
The company, also known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, announced that a well in the Sichuan Basin in Southwest China tested at a high daily output of 314,500 cubic meters of industrial gas flow, a discovery that will boost gas reserves and production in the Puguang area.
The well, which reached a vertical depth of over 5,300 meters, set a new record for the deepest vertical depth of a shale gas well in China. The breakthrough provides key technical insights for developing ultra-deep shale gas reserves across the Sichuan Basin, a region estimated to hold 16.5 trillion cubic meters of such resources.
While the country possesses rich shale gas reserves, most are trapped in ultra-deep, geologically complex formations -- dubbed "deep-Earth forbidden zones" -- that require advanced extraction methods.
The well, named Tiebei-1 Sidetrack HF (Horizontal Fracturing) Well, targeted shale gas deposits buried more than 4,500 meters underground, where extreme pressures, complex rock layers, and high stress differentials pose significant challenges.
Sinopec's engineering team has developed precision drilling techniques, described as "threading a needle at depths of several kilometers," to navigate the harsh geological conditions.
The engineers also deployed domestically developed 175-megapascal ultra-high-pressure fracturing equipment to create a network of pathways for gas extraction at 5,300 meters, a depth where conventional technologies often fail.
"Next, based on the exploration breakthrough of Tiebei-1 sidetrack HF (horizontal fracturing) well, we will speed up the integrated exploration and development plan for Permian shale gas in Puguang Block, pushing for efficient conversion of resources, and transform the 'Deep-Earth forbidden zone' into 'Deep-Earth Granery'," said Peng Jun, chief expert at Sinopec Zhongyuan Oilfield.
In 2012, China launched the commercial development of Fuling Shale Gas Field, becoming the third country after the United States and Canada to achieve commercial development of shale gas.
It has since established three national shale gas demonstration zones in the Sichuan Basin, home to eight major gas fields including Weirong, which in 2020 became China's first deep shale gas field with proven reserves exceeding 100 billion cubic meters.
Sinopec announces breakthrough in shale gas exploration
