China's first shale oil field with an annual output of over 100 million tons was born
On March 24th, it was learned from the press office of Sinopec that a major breakthrough has been made in oil and gas exploration in the Shengli Jiyang Shale Oil National Demonstration Zone. In the Fanyeping 1 block of the Xinxing Oilfield located in Gaoqing County, Zibo City, Shandong Province, the proven geological reserves of shale oil in the shale series have reached over 140 million tons, and the technically recoverable reserves have reached 11.3599 million tons. This is the first shale oilfield with proven geological reserves of over 100 million tons that has been reviewed and filed by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Shale oil refers to the petroleum resources contained in shale formations rich in organic matter. The exploration potential of shale oil resources in China is huge and it is an important strategic resource for the country. In addition to the emerging oil fields, the first batch of fields to be reviewed and recognized by the Ministry of Natural Resources also includes the Zhentong Oilfield of Sinopec. The two have added a total of 180 million tons of proven geological reserves, which is of great guiding significance for the efficient exploration and development deployment of continental shale oil resources in China.
Through 150,000 indoor experiments, we have proposed the theory of shale oil enrichment in continental fault depression lake basins, breaking through the traditional common understanding that shale oil can only be enriched and utilized when its maturity is higher than 0.9%. Liu Huimin, deputy general manager and chief geologist of Sinopec Shengli Oilfield Branch, introduced that under the support of this theory, the resource volume of Jiyang shale oil has increased by two times after re-evaluation.
To awaken the "sleeping treasure" of shale oil, Shengli Oilfield has effectively overcome the world-class problems of high temperature, high pressure and coexistence of gusching and leakage in shale oil. It has explored and formed the "storage - fracture - pressure" ternary storage and infiltration theory understanding, tackled the full-cycle three-dimensional development technology, and built a geological engineering integrated platform. The three-dimensional development of shale oil has expanded from 3 layers to 7 layers. At the same time, it has also developed high-end automated drilling equipment, explored fast and efficient horizontal well drilling technology and close-cut combined fracture network volume fracturing technology. The average drilling cycle has dropped from 133 days to 29.5 days, and the drilling cycle for a well depth of 6,000 meters has exceeded 17.7 days. The production capacity of a single well has continuously reached new highs.
Sun Yongzhuang, assistant general manager of Sinopec Group Corporation and Party secretary and executive director of Shengli Petroleum Administration Co., LTD., introduced that after more than 10 years of continuous research and innovation, the estimated shale oil resources of Shengli Oilfield have reached 10.5 billion tons, which is comparable to the conventional oil and gas resources discovered in the past 60-plus years. With the integrated advancement of exploration and development, Shengli Oilfield is expected to add 80 million tons of proven reserves this year.
In recent years, Sinopec has continuously intensified its efforts in shale oil exploration and development, and multiple exploration areas have achieved continuous breakthroughs. In January 2021, Sinopec successfully tested a high-yield shale oil and gas well, Taiye 1, in the Fuling area of Chongqing. In 2024, the shale oil output of the Fuling Shale Gas Field will exceed 30,000 tons for the first time. In December 2021, Sinopec secured a favorable area of 420 square kilometers and a shale oil resource of 350 million tons in the Zhentong Depression area of the northern Jiangsu Basin. In July 2022, another strategic breakthrough was achieved in the northern Jiangsu Basin. The HF well on the Hua2 side of the shale oil exploration well produced over 30 tons of oil and more than 1,500 cubic meters of natural gas per day, marking the activation of the 1.1 billion tons of shale oil resources in the Gaoyou and Jinhu depressions of the Northern Jiangsu Basin. In 2024, Sinopec's annual output of shale oil reached 705,000 tons, an increase of 308,000 tons compared with the previous year.