Drill, baby, drill: China goes ‘ultra-deep' for energy security
China is producing oil and gas from a 10,910-metre well – the second-deepest hole ever drilled on Earth – China National Petroleum Corporation has announced.
The Shenditake 1 well, in the Tarim oilfield in western China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is the first 'ultra-deep' well in Asia, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
'We took 270 days to drill down to around 10,000 metres, but then it took more than 300 days to open up the last 900 metres,' well manager Wang Chunsheng told the state news agency.
Wang said challenges faced by the team when the drill reached 10,000 metres included instability of the well wall, damage to drilling tools, and underground leaks.
Chinese oil giants have stepped up domestic oil and gas exploration efforts due to national energy security concerns.
The world's second-largest economy imports most of its crude oil, mainly from Russia and Saudi Arabia. Last year, it imported 553 million tonnes, down 1.9 per cent year on year. Domestic production totalled 212.8 million tonnes, up 1.8 per cent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
28 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
China's Seazen markets first dollar-bond offering by a private builder since 2023
Seazen Group, one of the few major private-sector Chinese developers yet to default, started marketing a dollar bond that would be the first of its kind in more than two years. Once ranked among China's top 10 developers by contracted sales, the company set the initial price target for the three-year notes at 13.25 per cent, a person familiar with the matter said. If the issuance were successfully priced, Seazen would be the first privately owned local builder to tap the publicly syndicated US-currency bond market since early 2023. The securities can be called and put after two years. There has been a drought of dollar bond issuance by Chinese developers since the country became mired in a years-long real estate crisis, suppressing appetite for such debt. Dalian Wanda Group's property-management arm was the last major privately held property firm to sell dollar bonds, pricing two such notes in early 2023. Seazen has managed to withstand the headwinds in the sector and still operates an extensive line of shopping centres in smaller cities. Last year, rental income from commercial properties grew 13 per cent. It has also benefited from measures introduced by the government to broaden access to some commercial loans, putting up some of its properties as collateral to generate fresh funding. The new bond offered a slight premium over the company's existing 4.5 per cent note due in May 2026, which currently yielded 12.9 per cent, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Daniel Fan and Hui Yen Tay. 'If printed, we expect this to attract more investors, both regional and global, to return to China high-yield dollar bonds,' said Zerlina Zeng, the head of Asian strategy at Creditsights Singapore. Seazen's liquidity was better than most high-yield Chinese developers, so it could probably obtain cheaper funding onshore by pledging its commercial real estate assets, she added.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong re-exporters urged to remain cautious despite US-China trade talks
The latest US-China trade talks may have alleviated concerns among some Hong Kong re-exporters, but the sector should remain cautious because President Donald Trump's administration has been accused of creating crises to gain bargaining power, according to observers on Thursday. Advertisement High-level officials from the United States and mainland China concluded their two-day economic and trade consultation mechanism meeting in London on Wednesday. Trump announced that a trade agreement had been reached with the mainland, stipulating that tariffs on Chinese imports to the US would increase from the current 30 per cent to 55 per cent, while tariffs on US exports the other way would remain at 10 per cent, pending approval from himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to Trump, the US would also gain access to the mainland's magnets and all necessary rare earth elements, while certain provisions would be offered in exchange, including allowing mainland students to study at American universities. Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, suggested the deal could offer a slight benefit to Hong Kong, although it was too early to say the dust had settled between the two countries. Advertisement 'For Hong Kong, such a deal may help stabilise its US-China re-exports with less concern about electronic equipment supply chains, which is the largest trade item. Given the less intense environment, the front-loading demand may be lower than in the scenario of a full-fledged trade war,' he cautioned. 'There is no guarantee that what we see right now will remain, and more restrictions can return at any time, especially as the US includes China clauses in its deals with other countries, which may also affect Hong Kong.'
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China's photonic chip debut to power AI, 6G and quantum computing advances, expert says
As China joins the international drive to mass produce high-performance photonic chips, an industry pioneer said the technical performance of its chips will position the country for major advances in artificial intelligence (AI), 6G and quantum computing Shanghai Jiao Tong University Chip Hub for Integrated Photonics Xplore (CHIPX) announced on June 5 that it had begun producing 6-inch (15.2cm) wafers for thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chips, which rely on light – or photons – rather than electrical signals for information transmission and processing. While this is China's first pilot production line for photonic chips, Europe and the US are already established in the field. Dutch company SMART Photonics last year upgraded its line to process 4-inch InP wafers, and California-based PsiQuantum revealed in February that it was adapting a 300mm silicon photonics line. China's pilot production line, built on the new TFLN material, may have come later but it is already showing gains in terms of technical performance by overcoming a global limit for high-speed optical links. TFLN is an emerging high-performance optoelectronic material known for its ultra-fast electro-optic effect, high bandwidth and low power consumption. But its brittle nature has hindered large-scale manufacturing. The team at CHIPX worked for several years to create the country's breakthrough in photonic chips. Photo: Handout 'Establishing this stable production line is the result of nearly 15 years of effort,' said Professor Jin Xianmin, director of CHIPX.
