The desert is shrouded in dust and the sun is dim, with the red flag half rolled out of the gate

Time flies, more than 1300 years after Wang Changling created "Joining the Army", the "Yuanmen" deep in the Taklamakan Desert has become a towering drilling rig. In ancient times, literati and poets used poetry and songs to create a vigorous and majestic poetic world here; Now, the people of Northwest Petroleum are using core technology to compose a magnificent poem of technological innovation here.

This year, Northwest Oilfield has set a goal of achieving a 10 million ton oil and gas field by 2021, with Shunbei Oil and Gas Field being the main production base. During the period of low oil prices, Northwest Oilfield optimized its production structure, increased the production of low-cost blocks, increased the contribution of high-efficiency oil producing areas such as Shunbei Oil and Gas Field, reduced the production of high cost blocks in old areas, and maintained the total crude oil production of 6.7 million tons this year unchanged.

Through innovative knowledge, technology and process, the scientific research team strengthened the integrated operation mode of exploration and development and geological engineering integration, improved the quality and efficiency of division of work and cooperation among disciplines, and overcame world-class problems in exploration and development of ultra deep reservoirs in the Tarim Basin.

Innovative understanding, expanding new fields of oil and gas exploration

The Tarim Basin is the largest oil-bearing basin in China. However, on the land of more than 400000 square kilometers, it is like "looking for a needle in a haystack" to search for oil thousands of meters deep into the stratum.

In 2016, Northwest Oil Field achieved the breakthrough of "looking for Tahe beyond Tahe", found a billion ton Shunbei oil and gas field, and found 18 main fault zones enriched and formed reservoirs, thus "fault accumulation" became the soul of oil and gas exploration in the Tarim Basin.

Shunbei Oil and Gas Field is currently a "first-class" project produced by Sinopec in the western region. The Northwest Oilfield, located around the No.1 and No.5 main fault zones, built an 800000 ton production capacity base in 2019 and is moving towards a 1 million ton production capacity base in 2020. As of now, the cumulative production of crude oil is 2 million tons and natural gas is 595 million cubic meters.

Through practice, the oil and gas reservoir formation law of "controlling storage, controlling accumulation, and controlling enrichment" in the main fault zone has gradually become clear. The research team innovates their thinking, applies new technologies, breaks away from the main fault zone, explores new types of oil and gas reservoirs, and expands the "harvest" area of oil and gas in the hopeful land of Shunbei.

On March 30th, Shunbei 52A well achieved high oil and gas production, with a daily output of 150 tons of crude oil and 59000 cubic meters of natural gas. This well is an important exploration well deployed by the Northwest Oilfield on the east side of the 5th fault branch, confirming that the branch fault is also rich in oil and gas. The main fault zone is like a highway, while the branch faults are like ordinary roads connected to these main roads, forming a transportation network. After searching for patterns, multiple branching fault zones have developed in the No. 5 fault zone, with a cumulative length of 133 kilometers and an estimated resource of 160 million tons.

The Shunbei No.1 and No.5 fault zones, which have already been put into development, have a huge shape, like an 8-lane highway, and researchers call them the main first-class fault zones. And the No. 7 fault zone is only a single lane two lane road, with a relatively small shape, which researchers call the main secondary fault zone. On April 30th, Shunbei 71X well achieved high-yield oil and gas flow, with a daily output of 360 tons of crude oil and 25000 cubic meters of natural gas, confirming that the main secondary fault zone has the ability to achieve high and stable production, and is a favorable exploration target.