In search of a gas reservoir in the province of Sichuan, located in the country's southwestern corner, China has begun drilling a new hole that will reach a depth of 10,000 meters.
After the launch of the first project on May 30 in China's western Xinjiang province, which is touted to be Asia's deepest well and is situated in the petroleum-rich Tarim Basin area, China will begin drilling its second ultra-deep well.
Shendi Chuanke-1 Well
On Thursday, July 20, PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gasfield Company started digging a new borewell in Sichuan province termed Shendi Chuanke-1 Well. The two companies are China's biggest oil and gas producers and distributors.
According to the Independent, China Electric Power News reports that the exploration of Chuanke-1 is an integral part of the Deep Earth drilling project. Apparently, this is an aspect of China's larger infrastructure project that will offer an important foundation and support for China's future scientific studies and oil and gas development efforts.
Energy security has been an increasing concern in recent years owing to geopolitical conflicts, shortages, and price instability. If the initiative to discover a gas reserve is successful, this will be a huge boon to the nation.
China has surpassed other nations as the top exporter of natural gas and is now the fourth biggest gas producer in the world. President Xi Jinping's current five-year plan calls for meeting domestic energy demand entirely by 2025.
Sichuan's Potential
The southeastern region of Sichuan is not only home to some of China's most significant shale deposits. It is also home to the country's most famous pandas, fiery cuisine, and magnificent mountain views.
Despite the region's obvious potential, state-owned oil giants have struggled to properly tap into it because of the region's difficult geography and subterranean geology.
According to the project's deputy manager, Ding Wei, gathering geological data from the Earth's depths and assembling a world-class international and technical team in China are both critically important goals of the endeavor. Ding referred to the 10,000-meter-deep exploration project as a "major national project" on par with the moon exploration mission.
Notably, he acknowledged that the subsurface conditions and inaccessible terrain would provide "world-class challenges" to the engineers when they drilled the borewell.
China Daily reported that in May, the China National Petroleum Corporation announced that the work had begun on Asia's deepest well, at a depth of 11,100 meters in the province of Xinjiang. The initiative was called an attempt to explore subterranean regions of the Earth.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole in northwest Russia is the deepest man-made hole at an impressive depth of 12,262 meters.
