Breaking Through 10,000 Meters! China’s First No. 1 in Asia

At 14:48 on March 4, 2024, my country's first scientific exploration well with a designed well depth of over 10,000 meters, the drilling depth of the Deep Tako 1 Well in PetroChina's Tarim Oilfield exceeded 10,000 meters, becoming the second onshore well in the world and Asia. The first well with a vertical depth of more than 10,000 meters marks that my country has independently overcome the technical bottleneck of drilling ultra-deep wells with a depth of 10,000 meters, and its deep oil and gas drilling capabilities and supporting technologies have reached the international advanced level.

Well Shenzhen Tako 1 is located in Shaya County, Aksu Region, Xinjiang, in the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert. It is a major "deep earth project" implemented by PetroChina in the Tarim Oilfield and shoulders the two major missions of scientific exploration and oil and gas discovery. The well is designed to be 11,100 meters deep and will be drilled on May 30, 2023.

Drilling to a depth of 10,000 meters is the field with the most technical bottlenecks and the greatest challenges in oil and gas engineering. It is also one of the important indicators to measure the level of national engineering technology and equipment. Faced with the extreme temperature and pressure environment underground, PetroChina Tarim Oilfield, Western Drilling, Gemstone Machinery and other units carried out joint research and overcame key technical problems in the ultra-high drilling platform large load lifting system, and independently developed the world's first 12,000-meter deep well The automated drilling rig has innovatively developed 220-degree Celsius ultra-high temperature drilling fluid, high-temperature resistant screws, inclination measurement and other process technologies. It has achieved breakthroughs in data acquisition equipment such as 10,000-meter coring and cables. The 175-megapat high-pressure fracturing vehicle and fracturing fluid equipment have been completed. Production, research and development and successful on-site testing have created a number of key core technologies such as safe and efficient drilling and completion of 10,000-meter deep wells.

At present, my country's onshore deep and ultra-deep oil and gas resources account for 34% of the country's total oil and gas resources, and the proportion of new deep and ultra-deep oil and gas reserves is increasing year by year. The Tarim Basin, where the Shenzhen Taco 1 Well is located, is the only oil and gas basin in the world dominated by ultra-deep resources, and is also the largest deep oil and gas enrichment area in my country.

"Ultra-deep layers have become the main frontier for increasing reserves and production of my country's oil and gas resources. Advancing into the deep earth is a major strategic task to ensure my country's energy security and a major strategic choice to stabilize and secure the energy rice bowl," said Sun Jinsheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

In recent years, PetroChina has vigorously implemented "deep earth engineering" in the Tarim Basin, and has successfully drilled more than 140 "underground Everest" holes with a depth of more than 8,000 meters. In 2023, PetroChina's Tarim Oilfield produced 19.57 million tons of ultra-deep oil and gas in the Tarim Basin, ranking first in the country and becoming my country's largest ultra-deep oil and gas production base.