China taps 29.6 million tons of oil from its largest desert oilfield at 19,685 feet

China’s largest desert oilfield has crossed a major production milestone after extracting more than 26 million metric tons (29.6 million U.S. tons) of oil and gas from formations buried deeper than 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) beneath the Taklimakan Desert.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), which operates the Fuman Oilfield in the Tarim Basin, announced the milestone on Monday. The development highlights the growing push to tap ultra-deep hydrocarbon resources in one of China’s most challenging oil-producing regions.

Core recovered from 26,509 feet

The latest breakthrough came at the Zhentan-1 well near the edge of the Taklimakan Desert. Engineers recently recovered rock cores from a depth of 8,080 meters (26,509 feet), providing samples of formations buried for about 500 million years.

It is the first time China has retrieved a core sample from deeper than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) in the northwestern part of the Tarim Basin.

The Taklimakan Desert occupies much of the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang. The basin contains extensive sedimentary formations that have become a major target for China’s ultra-deep oil and gas exploration.

“With these precious rock cores, we can analyze and evaluate the hydrocarbon generation potential below 8,000 meters, including the thickness of the oil and gas layers and their maturity levels,” Xu Yanan, director of the Tarim Oilfield project at CNPC, as reported by the China Central Television (CCTV) News.

More than 29 million tons produced

The Fuman Oilfield has now produced substantial volumes from its ultra-deep formations. According to CNPC figures reported by CCTV, the operation has extracted 20.36 million metric tons (22.4 million tons) of crude oil and 8.15 billion cubic meters (287.8 billion cubic feet) of natural gas.

“We have already extracted 20.36 million tons of crude oil and 8.15 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the ultra-deep formations beneath the Taklimakan Desert, with a combined oil and gas equivalent exceeding 26.86 million tons,” said Lu Zhongyuan, an engineer at CNPC’s Tarim Oilfield, according toCCTV report.

485 wells reach extreme depths

CNPC has expanded drilling across the Fuman Oilfield as it seeks to unlock more resources beneath the desert. A total of 485 ultra-deep wells have now been drilled at the field.

Of these wells, 133 have each produced more than 100,000 metric tons (more than 110,000 tons) of oil and gas. Another 464 wells have each exceeded 10,000 metric tons (more than 11,000 tons) of cumulative production.

The scale of production has helped establish the Tarim Oilfield as China’s largest desert oilfield and a major base for ultra-deep hydrocarbon production.

Tarim holds vast deep reserves

The latest drilling results could help researchers better understand hydrocarbon resources located several miles beneath the surface. The recovered cores will provide geological information about formations that are difficult to study using conventional exploration methods.

The Tarim Basin is already an important source of China’s oil and gas reserves. The basin has more than 5 billion metric tons (more than 5.5 billion tons) of proven oil and gas reserves, with more than half located in ultra-deep formations below 6,000 meters (19,685 feet).

As production moves deeper beneath the Taklimakan Desert, these formations are becoming increasingly important to China’s efforts to expand domestic hydrocarbon reserves and output.