BEIJING, Oct. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- China Petroleum
& Chemical Corporation's (HKG: 0386, "Sinopec") Fuling Shale
Gas Field – the first commercially developed and operated
large-scale shale gas field in China – announced on October 8 that it has produced 40 billion cubic
meters of shale gas, setting a new record for the cumulative
production of shale gas in the country. The steady supply of a
green gas source has benefited more than 200 million residents in
over 70 cities across six provinces along the Yangtze River
Economic Belt.
Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that exists in the
organic-rich mud shale and its interlayers in an adsorbed or free
state. The main component of shale gas is methane, a clean,
efficient energy resource and industrial chemical, widely used in
residential gas, urban heat supply, power generation, automobile
fuel and chemical production.
Sinopec's Fuling Shale Gas Field has a daily gas production
reaching 20 million cubic meters at present and can meet the gas
demands of 40 million households, contributing to a speedy clean
energy transition, ensuring national energy security and helping to
achieve the goals of reaching peak carbon and carbon
neutrality.
The Fuling Shale Gas Field is located in the Fuling District of
Chongqing City and is one of the
key gas sources of China's
Sichuan-East Gas Pipeline and a foundation of Sinopec's promotion
of gas popularization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The
construction of the gas field began in December 2012 and at the time it was the world's
first major commercial shale gas discovery outside North America. The project entered commercial
development ahead of schedule in March
2014 and became China's
first large-scale shale gas field with commercial development. It
also made China the third country
worldwide to achieve shale gas commercial development after
the United States and Canada.
The gas field went into operation in 2017 as scheduled with an
annual production capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, reducing
carbon dioxide emissions by 12 million tons per year, which is the
equivalent of planting 110 million trees or taking 8 million cars
off the roads. The successful development of the Fuling Shale Gas
Field has set a new milestone in China's energy development history and opened
a new chapter for the country's energy revolution.
Innovative management model enabling "Chinese speed" for
shale gas development
Sinopec Jianghan Oilfield Company benchmarked world-class
standards to optimize production organization and operation as well
as standardized construction, significantly accelerating and
improving productivity and construction of the gas field to build a
shale gas production capacity of 10 billion cubic meters in only
three years. It became China's
first large-scale shale gas field to reach 10 billion cubic meters,
enabling the "Chinese speed" that has turned heads around the
world.
Now, the construction period of drilling and fracturing has been
cut in half. The Jiaoye 1HF discovery well of the gas field has
been in continuous production for more than 3,000 days. Another
well, the Jiaoye 6-2HF, has produced more than 330 million cubic
meters of gas as it maintains two records for the longest
development time of domestic shale gas wells and highest single
well cumulative production.
According to an assessment by China's Ministry of Natural Resources in
October 2020, the proven total
reserves of the shale gas field in Fuling have reached 792.641
billion cubic meters.
Starting from scratch, Sinopec has been continuously exploring,
fracturing, and has integrated five technology systems of shale gas
development including the staged fracturing gas testing of long
horizontal wells and green development, laying a solid theoretical
and technical foundation for China's large-scale shale gas exploration and
development.
In November 2014, Sinopec was
granted the "International Pioneer Award" by the 5th
World Shale Oil & Gas Summit for the
discovery of Fuling Shale Gas Field. In 2018, the "Efficient
Exploration and Development of Fuling
Large-scale Marine Shale Gas Field" project won the first
prize in the National Science and Technology Progress Awards.
For more information, please visit Sinopec.
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