China's Bohai Oilfield completes drilling of 6,088-meter well

A full moon is seen over an oil production platform in Bohai Oilfield, Sept. 29, 2023. (Photo by Du Penghui/Xinhua)

TIANJIN, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The Bohai Oilfield, China's largest offshore crude oil production base, has completed the drilling operations of a new 6,088-meter-deep well, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Tianjin branch said on Tuesday.

The well, Bohai 19-6-D1, will be used for the oil and gas recovery of the Bozhong 19-6 Condensate Gas Field, the first gas field with proven reserves of over 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Bohai Sea.

The oil drilling industry generally classifies wells with depths exceeding 6,000 meters as super-deep wells. These wells serve as essential tools for extracting deep-sea oil and gas resources and exploring the Earth's deep layers.

The complex geological conditions, with a formation temperature of more than 180 degrees Celsius and a maximum bottom-hole pressure of 56 megapascals, have raised the bar of its drilling operations. In addition, the construction crew had to drill through two underground mountains riddled with fractures.

Two mega projects -- the respective phase one project of the Bozhong 19-6 Condensate Gas Field and the Bozhong 26-6 Oilfield -- are currently under construction by the Bohai Oilfield. The two projects, once completed, are expected to meet the basic energy demands of a city with a population of 10 million for an entire year.