Sinopec breaks directional drilling record at depth of 8,874

The China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) Northwest Oilfield Company on Friday said its Shunbei oil and gas field had broken the record for the deepest onshore directional well drilling in Asia, reaching a depth of 8,874.4 meters.

Located between Aksu Prefecture and the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the oil and gas field has a reservoir with an average depth of more than 8,000 meters. It is considered to be the deepest onshore oil and gas field in Asia.

Researchers at the Shunbei oil and gas field have been developing and using ultra-deep well drilling technologies since 2002, using the tech in nearly 40 wells with depths of more than 8,000 meters in the oil and gas field.

It currently has annual production capacities of 1 million tonnes of crude oil and 400 million cubic meters of natural gas, and expects to raise its annual crude oil and natural gas outputs to 1.7 million tonnes and 5 billion cubic meters, respectively, by 2025, the company said.