China starts drilling another 10,000-metre well in search for natural gas reserve
- Exploration of the challenging Shendi Chuanke-1 Well in the Sichuan Basin is part of Deep Earth project
- Since 2021, China has become the world’s fourth largest producer of natural gas
China has begun drilling another hole more than 10,000 metres deep in the southwestern province of Sichuan – arguably the most difficult drilling project in the world – in the hope of finding a large natural gas reserve.
Ultra-deep wells are more than 9,000 metres deep, and these drilling projects are regarded as having the most technical challenges in the oil and gas engineering industry.
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China set to drill Asia's deepest crude-oil well in Xinjiang
This will be the second ultra-deep well drilled in China, after the first project – said to be Asia’s deepest well – was started on May 30 in the petroleum-rich Tarim Basin region in Xinjiang province in the country’s west.
The exploration of Chuanke-1 is part of the Deep Earth drilling project, which is part of wider infrastructure to “provide an important foundation and support for China’s future scientific research and oil and gas resource development”, state news outlet China Electric Power News reported.
Since 2021, China has become the world’s fourth largest producer of natural gas, and its supply of natural gas has now exceeded that of oil.
