CNPC recovers core from 8,080 m at Zhentan-1 well in northwestern Tarim Basin

Cumulative production from China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) reservoirs deeper than 6,000 m at the Hade-Fuman oilfield in China’s Tarim Basin topped 26 million tonnes of oil and gas. The field, in Xinjiang’s Taklamakan Desert, has produced 20.36 million tonnes of crude and 8.15 billion cu m of natural gas, equal to more than 26.86 million tonnes of oil and gas equivalent.

Of the 485 ultra-deep wells CNPC has drilled at the field, 133 have each produced more than 100,000 tonnes of oil and gas, and 464 have each produced more than 10,000 tonnes. The Tarim Basin holds proven oil and gas reserves of more than 5 billion tonnes, more than half of them in ultra-deep formations.

Separately, CNPC recovered 6 m of continuous core from 8,080 m at its Zhentan-1 exploration well in Wensu County on 1 October. The Cambrian source rock, about 500 million years old, was the first core of its kind from below 8,000 m on the basin’s northwestern margin. The well, the second drilled with China’s first domestically developed 12,000-m rig, reached 8,345 m on 2 October and targets Sinian-age structural traps.