Sinopec strikes oil and gas at extra-deep well in China's Tarim basin

SINOPEC said on Tuesday (May2) it had struck sizeable oil and gas flows in an exploration well in the Tarim basin at a depth of 8,591 metres below the surface, another breakthrough in the state oil major’s hunt for hard-to-extract hydrocarbon resources.

Shunbei-10X well, located in Aksu area of China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, tested a daily oil and gas flow of 600,000 cubic metres, making it the 50th well struck at a depth exceeding 8,000 metres in the Shunbei field, Sinopec said in a statement.

With an average well depth of more than 7,300 metres, Shunbei is one of the world’s deepest oil and gas fields being commercially developed, the firm said, adding that Shunbei’s oil and gas production so far reached 7.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent.

Under President Xi Jinping’s call to boost domestic energy supply, China’s national energy champions are accelerating the development of more costly, geologically challenging oil and gas resources. REUTERS