The 10,000-meter deep well drives the iterative upgrading of petroleum equipment manufacturing and ultra-deep layer to become the ＂main position＂ for increasing reserves and production.

CCTV News:During the Spring Festival, in Tarim Oilfield, Xinjiang, China’s first 10,000-meter exploration well — — Well Taco-1, which is deep in the ground, has been drilling nonstop. After the drilling depth of Well Taco-1 reaches 9850m, the bit shall be replaced, and the new bit will soon reach the previous operation position, and the drilling will continue for 10,000m.

Scientific exploration well is called scientific exploration well for short. Its main purpose is to explore the evolution of the earth, the origin of life, climate change, disaster prevention and resource utilization. The biggest difference between it and ordinary wells is that the field it wants to explore is an unknown field, which has never been drilled before. The reporter learned from Tarim Oilfield of China Petroleum that the natural gas produced in the deep strata below 4,500 meters in Tarim Basin where Well Taco 1 is located has exceeded 260 billion cubic meters.

At present, the daily production of natural gas in Tarim Oilfield is close to 100 million cubic meters, and most of these natural gases are collected from the deep strata seven or eight kilometers underground. As the main producing area of deep-seated natural gas newly opened in China, Bozi Dabei gas area has been increasing in output since winter.

Li Zhiming, head of Boda Oil and Gas Production Management Zone in Tarim Oilfield, China Petroleum:At present, 102 wells have been opened, and the daily gas production has reached 30 million cubic meters, reaching a record high, ensuring the residents of the West-East Gas Pipeline and southern Xinjiang to spend the winter warmly.

Tarim Basin is the largest oil-bearing basin in China, with rich reserves of ultra-deep oil and gas resources. Tarim Oilfield has built five main deep and ultra-deep natural gas producing areas in the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain and the hinterland of Taklimakan Desert, with an annual gas production of 30 billion cubic meters.

Wang Xiaoliang, Deputy Director of Drilling Institute, Oil and Gas Engineering Research Institute, Tarim Oilfield, China Petroleum:In 2023 alone, 72 wells exceeding 8,000 meters were completed, and ultra-deep wells became the main means of oil and gas exploration and development in Tarim Basin. Now, 18 million tons of oil and gas in Tarim Oilfield are produced from ultra-deep strata every year.

In order to speed up the "realization" of new well productivity, Tarim Oilfield has accelerated the construction of ground supporting system engineering and accelerated the improvement of oil and gas gathering and transportation capacity. These natural gases extracted from deep strata in Tarim Basin are collected in the first station of West-to-East Gas Transmission through criss-crossing pipelines inside the oilfield, and then transported to Wan Li.

Ten thousand meters deep well drives the iterative upgrading of petroleum equipment manufacturing.

The 10,000-meter deep well adopts the world’s first 12,000-meter ultra-deep automatic drilling rig, and at the same time, it also uses nearly 200 domestic top equipment such as casing, drill bit and downhole tools independently developed by China, which promotes the iterative upgrading of the industrial chain of drilling and production equipment.

A few days ago, China’s newly developed steel pipe with the highest steel grade was sent to the site of a 10,000-meter deep well, which will be used to support the shaft wall after the well breaks through 10,000 meters. The depth of 10,000 meters puts forward higher requirements for the strength and toughness of oil casing.

Zhang Zhonghua, Chief Scientist of China Baowu Group:We have developed the world’s first on-line controlled cooling equipment system and key technologies for hot-rolled seamless steel pipes with complete intellectual property rights. This is the first 15A ultra-high strength and high toughness casing for Taco 1 well in the world, and its impact toughness is as high as 120 Joules, which is more than 50% higher than that of conventional manufacturing technology.

Once the drilling tool is lowered to a depth of 10,000 meters, it will cause incalculable losses. R&D personnel have simulated dozens of working conditions of underground high temperature and high pressure, and carried out hundreds of tests and field tests.

Lu Xiaoqing, Chief Engineer of Product Design Technology of baoshan iron & steel Steel Pipe and Bar Division:The key performance indexes of casing, such as steel grade, collapse resistance and sealing ability, are all higher than the highest steel grade (international common standard) by more than 21%, and all the performance indexes of casing remain basically unchanged at 220℃.

In addition, 10,000-meter deep well drilling has also developed and applied a large number of scientific and technological sharp tools, such as high-efficiency rock-breaking bits, elevators with a load of 1,000 tons, drill pipes with a tensile strength of 942 tons, high-strength metal sealing coring tools, logging instruments resistant to high temperature of 230℃ and high pressure of 175 MPa, etc., which have strongly supported drilling to the depth of 10,000 meters.

Sun Jinsheng, Academician of China Academy of Engineering:Taking the 10,000-meter deep-water drilling project as an opportunity, we can make a major breakthrough in China’s 10,000-meter-deep oil and gas exploration, accelerate the construction of key technologies for 10,000-meter ultra-deep oil and gas resources drilling, sum up experience, and upgrade iteratively to improve the stability and reliability of technologies, so as to promote the realization of our country’s 10,000-meter deep-well exploration and development industrial chain and help our country’s high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in petroleum technology.

Witness the new record of deep ground and ultra-deep ground becoming the main position to increase reserves and yield.

China’s deep and ultra-deep oil and gas resources reach 67.1 billion tons of oil equivalent, which has great potential for exploration and development. With the deepening of deep and ultra-deep exploration and development, ultra-deep oil and gas resources have become an important part of China’s energy composition.

In the practice of oil and gas exploration and development in China, the strata buried more than 4500 meters are deep, and the strata buried more than 6000 meters are ultra-deep. The buried depth of China’s oil and gas resources is obviously higher than the world average. More than one third of the known oil and gas resources are distributed in 4500 meters underground, and some are even deeper.

Zhao Wenzhi, Academician of China Academy of Engineering:It should be said that in most basins in the world, the oil and gas was mainly about 5,000m ago, and the thickness of its sedimentary rocks was about 6,000m, while the thickness of sedimentary rocks in China exceeded 10,000m, even to 15,000m. Therefore, the 10,000m depth in China is unique in the world.

In recent years, China’s oil drilling and production equipment has made great progress, providing strong technical support for ultra-deep exploration and development. Ultra-deep geophysical prospecting technology can make the depth of 10,000 meters visible, ultra-deep drilling technology can reach the depth of 10,000 meters, and ultra-deep oil production technology can make the depth of 10,000 meters recoverable.

With the completion of more and more ultra-deep drilling, the theory of ultra-deep petroleum geology in China has been continuously innovated and improved, more and more oil and gas resources in ultra-deep fields have been locked by geologists, and major breakthroughs have been made in ultra-deep exploration. Ultra-deep has become an important replacement field for us to increase reserves and increase production.

Sun Jinsheng, Academician of China Academy of Engineering:The resources of ultra-deep oil and gas are very large, and the resources in Sichuan and Tarim basins with a depth of 8000 meters account for 80% of the country. At present, Keshen gas field, Fuman oil field and Penglai gas-bearing area have been discovered, with accumulated proven oil of more than 700 million tons and (natural) gas of 1.2 trillion cubic meters.