BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), the country's largest oil refiner, has announced that its Shengli Oilfield, driven by technology breakthroughs, has set a new record for single-well daily shale oil production in China.
A total of 94 horizontal shale oil wells have been built in the Jiyang shale oil national demonstration zone owned by the Shengli Oilfield in east China's Shandong Province since it was established two years ago, among which 36 wells have achieved peak daily oil production exceeding 100 tonnes, with a maximum of 262.8 tonnes for a single well, the Science and Technology Daily reported on Saturday.
The achievements were made with the driving force of technology innovations, according to Yang Yong, general manager of the Sinopec Shengli Oilfield.
Shale oil mainly refers to liquid hydrocarbons that are trapped in formations of shale rock that can be extracted for refining. It is often found in organic-rich shale and thin interlayers of carbonate rocks, sandstones, and siltstones.
China has abundant shale oil resources, but they are mainly continental shale oil, making exploration and production difficult.
Compared with the shale oil reserves in North America, those in Jiyang are buried deeper and have lower maturity, posing a series of challenges to exploration and development, said Yang.
The technology innovation team of the Shengli Oilfield overcame difficulties in exploration such as high temperature, high pressure, and simultaneous seepage in shale oil reservoirs.
They have developed a fast drilling technology centered on synthetic-based drilling fluid systems, enabling efficient drilling of horizontal wells with depths exceeding 3,300 meters and horizontal sections longer than 2,000 meters. The drilling cycle has been reduced from 133 days to 29.5 days, said Yang.
It is estimated that the shale oil resources in Jiyang amount to 10.5 billion tonnes. The Jiyang demonstration zone, the third of its kind in China following the ones in Xinjiang and Daqing, has reported a daily oil production of 1,600 tonnes and a cumulative oil production surpassing 800,000 tonnes. ■
