China National Petroleum Co (CNPC) said that it plans to produce new shale oil from formations within the existing Daqing oil field area that will help replenish production in decrease of that site.
The CNPC said it aims to produce 1 million tons of oil annually by 2025 from Gulong shale oil formations in Daqing, Heilongjiang province in northeast China.
CNPC drilled several key exploration wells in the Gulong Formation, including Guyeyouping 1, Yingye 1H, and Guye 2HC, which produced high volumes of oil in test production.
As China’s largest oil field, Daqing has been pumping for the past 60 years, but its reserves are rapidly depleting and the CNPC is turning to shale formations near the field to replace production.
CNPC has intensified research and drilling in the Songliao Basin, where Daqing is located, for unconventional oil resources that require technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Calling it a “strategic breakthrough” in continental shale oil, the CNPC has identified oil zones in the Gulong Formation with a size of 1,413 square km (546 square miles) so far this year that have added 1,268 billion tons of geological reserves.
“Gulong shale oil campaign helps solidify Daqing’s position as China’s largest onshore oil field as it struggles to replace reserves … helps ensure the security of national oil supply,” Fang said. Qing, general manager of the Daqing oil field, at the media briefing conducted by Heilongjiang Provincial Television.
The CNPC said it plans to drill a total of 100 wells in the Gulong this year, having completed 58 so far and 17 of these are producing industrial volumes.
China is in the early stages of developing its vast shale gas resources, with last year’s production accounting for a tenth of total gas production after more than a decade of work. to know more
China’s shale oil is in a more basic stage due to difficult geology and huge development costs, experts said.
