Workers patrol at a station of the Tarim Oilfield in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Feb 6, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]
China's largest ultra-deep oil and gas production base, the Tarim oilfield, has extracted a total of 150 million metric tons of oil and gas equivalent from formations deeper than 6,000 meters, its operator China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said on Thursday.
This accounts for 37 percent of the country's total oil and gas output last year, it said.
Globally, formations deeper than 4,500 meters are classified as deep, while those exceeding 6,000 meters are considered ultra-deep.
In the first two months of this year, the Tarim oilfield, located in the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, accelerated its ultra-deep oil and gas development, with daily output consistently rising, making ultra-deep reserves a key driver of production growth.
The oilfield will further expand exploration into deep and ultra-deep desert formations this year, CNPC said.
Recently, the drilling of China's first ultra-deep scientific exploration well, Shenditake 1, reached a depth of 10,910 meters, making it the deepest vertical well in Asia and the second-deepest in the world.
The successful drilling of this scientific exploration well in the Tarim oilfield is a milestone in China's deep-Earth scientific research and ultra-deep oil and gas exploration.
