Significant results! PetroChina has discovered China's first shale oil field of over 1 billion tons

PetroChina Changqing Oilfield released news today (June 20) that China's shale oil exploration has made a major breakthrough! After years of intensive tackling, China's proven shale oil geological reserves in the Ordos Basin have exceeded 1 billion tons, making it the largest shale oil oil field in China at present.

In 2019, PetroChina discovered the Qingcheng shale oil field in Longdong, Gansu Province, and in the past two years, researchers have continued to tackle key problems, adding 550 million tons of proven geological reserves in the first five months of this year, with a cumulative proven reserve of 1.052 billion tons.

Niu Xiaobing, Manager of the Exploration Division of PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company: The exploration and development of the 1 billion ton Qingcheng shale oil field benefited from our continuous innovation in the geological theory of oil exploration in the Ordos Basin and the three-dimensional seismic and imaging logging technology, and also from the breakthrough of the key core technologies of optimal and fast drilling of horizontal wells and volume fracturing.

The surface of the Qingcheng shale oil field is covered by thick layers of loess in the loess plateau area, and the ravines are vertical and horizontal, so it is very difficult to seismic exploration, drilling and fracturing transformation. In recent years, PetroChina Changqing Oilfield has continued to carry out key technical research such as seismic exploration on the loess plateau, deployment of long horizontal wells, drilling and completion of large platforms, and factory operations, and has built a national shale oil development demonstration zone with an annual output of one million tons.

Wu Zhiyu, senior expert of PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company: Relying on major national projects, we have explored and formed 5 series of 18 supporting technologies for shale oil development through integrated innovation, created a new model of three-dimensional development of horizontal wells and factory operation of large well clusters, and the largest platform well layout has reached 31, realizing the scale and efficiency development of shale oil under the background of low international oil prices.

At present, 277 oil wells have been put into operation in Qingcheng Oilfield, and the annual output will reach 1.17 million tons. It is estimated that by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the shale oil production capacity of Changqing Oilfield will exceed 5 million tons, and the output will exceed 3 million tons, which is equivalent to adding another medium-sized oil field to the country.