Sinopec: Three Prospecting Wells in Subei Basin Record High Oil Flow with 350 Million Tons of Estimated Reserves

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation’s (HKG: 0386, “Sinopec”) has reported another strategic breakthrough of shale oil exploration. This time, its subsidiary Sinopec East China Petroleum Bureau has recorded high-yield shale oil flow in three prospecting wells in Subei Basin. Among which, the Qinye 1HF well has tested daily oil production of 55 tons, the Shuaiye 3-7HF well has tested 20 tons per day, and the previous deployed Shaduo 1 well has a cumulative production of 11,000 tons over 392 days of continuous flow.

Major Strategic Breakthrough of Sinopec’s Shale Oil Exploration: Three Prospecting Wells in Subei Basin Record High Oil Flow with 350 Million Tons of Estimated Reserves

Preliminary evaluation shows that Sinopec’s establishment of a 420-square-kilometer favorable area with 350 million tons of shale oil resources in the Qintong sag has exhibited good prospects for exploration and development in the region and will inaugurate crude oil resources strategic replacement in China’s Subei Basin.

The shale oil in the Subei Basin has a burial depth of more than 3,000 meters, where development is difficult as the pressure is high and the storage space is thinner than a hair, bringing great challenges to processing techniques like drilling and fracturing. Sinopec East China Petroleum Bureau has achieved this major breakthrough in shale oil exploration by combining the actual exploration facts of Subei Basin to strengthen research on formation conditions and enrichment patterns of continental shale oil.

Sinopec has continued to expand and further its exploration efforts of shale oil. In January 2021, Sinopec Exploration Branch conducted test production of Taiye 1 well of shale oil and gas, preliminary estimation has showed shale gas reserves of 200 billion cubic meters and condensate of 280 million tons.

In November 2021, Sinopec Shengli Oilfield achieved a major breakthrough of shale oil exploration in the East Exploratory Area, the first batch of shale oil geological reserves has reached 458 million tons by current predictions. Initial estimates of shale oil resources in the region amount to 4 billion tons, making it a new frontier for increasing reserves and production in eastern China.

In the exploration and development of shale gas, Sinopec established China’s first 10-billion-cubic-meter major shale gas field, the Fuling shale gas field which has produced 40 billion cubic meters of shale gas cumulatively. As of now, the shale gas field has proved new reserves of 104.883 billion cubic meters, making the cumulative total to reach 900 billion cubic meters which accounts for 34 percent of the total proved shale gas reserves in China.

In addition, Sinopec discovered China’s first deep shale gas field, the Weirong shale gas field, the first phase of which has built a production capacity of 1 billion cubic meters in 2020.