China confirms first large-scale ultra-deep shale gas field in Sichuan

A massive shale gas field with over 200 billion cubic meters of ultra-deep reserves has been confirmed in southwest China's Sichuan Basin, taking the country's exploration push into uncharted territory more than 4,500 meters underground.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) announced on Wednesday that its Ziyang Dongfeng shale gas field has secured official certification from the Ministry of Natural Resources. The field holds proven geological reserves of 235.687 billion cubic meters, marking the birth of China's first ultra-deep shale gas field of this size.

The breakthrough began in 2024, when the Ziyang 2 well tested at a daily industrial gas flow of 1.257 million cubic meters, marking a major milestone in the exploration of Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation, the earth's oldest commercial shale layer which formed 540 million years ago.

Since then, technical teams have ramped up exploration and appraisal efforts, achieving increasingly higher test outputs and identifying a large, contiguous gas field buried between 4,500 and 5,200 meters deep.

"We conducted nearly one kilometer of systematic coring and more than 22,000 experimental analyses, allowing us to characterize the geology at the micrometer level. We integrated artificial intelligence into our geophysical technologies to clarify key features such as stratigraphy, sedimentation, and reservoir properties," said Zhang Zhuang, manager of the Oil and Gas Exploration Management Department at Sinopec's Southwest Oil and Gas Company.

"We also mastered ultra-deep shale gas drilling and fracturing technologies, forming a fully independent technological system for Cambrian ultra-deep shale gas exploration and development," said Zhang.

The Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation, with its thick, hard-to-drill rock layers, poses enormous engineering challenges. Despite harsh downhole conditions of high temperature and high pressure, Chinese engineers achieved key technological breakthroughs and figured out how shale gas accumulates within the formation. This achievement opened a new chapter for shale gas exploration in China.

China confirms first large-scale ultra-deep shale gas field in Sichuan

China's "artificial intelligence (AI) Plus" initiative helped advance the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing sector and promote the upgrading and improvement of consumption quality in the first three quarters of this year, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

AI-powered new growth drivers continued to expand and strengthen, leading high-quality manufacturing industrial development. In the first three quarters, digital product manufacturing contributed over one third to the growth of value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated size, with AI adoption among these firms rising steadily.

AI effectively boosted the development of modern service industry. In the first three quarters, the value-added output of information transmission, software and IT service sectors increased 10.4 percent.

AI also reshaped consumption and made its way into daily routines. Over the same period, sales of wearable smart devices surged more than 70 percent year on year among businesses above the designated size, while sales at unmanned stores grew over 25 percent.

The expansion of AI applications also spurred sustained investment across industrial chains.

NBS data showed that in the first three quarters, investment in electronic circuit manufacturing surged 58.7 percent year on year, while integrated circuit manufacturing investment rose 14.2 percent.

"Leveraging its comprehensive industrial supply chain, China has rapidly rolled out AI software and hardware products tailored to various scenarios, precisely meeting the demands of overseas markets. In the first three quarters, China's exports of products such as electronic components and wires and cables grew by 70 percent and 25.3 percent, respectively," Wang Guanhua, spokeswoman of the NBS and deputy director general of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the NBS, said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.

China's AI-plus initiative advances manufacturing transformation, consumption quality in first three quarters