More than two million tons of oil have been cumulatively extracted from the Jiyang Shale Oil National Demonstration Zone in east China's Shandong Province, China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), the country's largest oil refiner, announced on Monday.
The demonstration zone, owned by the Shengli Oilfield in Shandong, has accelerated efforts to increase its production capacity since the beginning of this year, with 10 high-production wells put into operation in the first four months of this year.
Shale oil mainly refers to liquid hydrocarbons trapped in formations of shale rock that can be extracted for refining. It is often found in organic-rich shale and thin interlayers of carbonate rocks, sandstones and siltstones.
That makes extraction a complex engineering problem. For Shengli, the demonstration zone offers its solutions.
"Through multiple rounds of technological upgrading, we have successfully shortened the drilling cycle for 6,000-meter ultra-deep wells from 133 days to just 17 days. The average oil output per well has exceeded 43,000 tons, and over 95 percent of core extraction equipment are domestically produced," said Yang Yong, director of Sinopec Shengli Petroleum Management Bureau Co., Ltd.
To date, the demonstration zone has reported proven reserves of 327 million tons, with total resources estimated to reach 10.5 billion tons.
Cumulative output of east China's major shale oil base exceeds 2 mln tons
