World non-renewable energy discussion

China National Petroleum Corp announced on Thursday that it has completed the drilling of the deepest vertical well in Asia, with a borehole reaching a depth of 10,910 meters in one of China's northwestern deserts, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The well, known as "Shenditake 1," is a scientific exploration project. Beyond the search for oil and gas resources, the well is also designed to advance the study of the Earth's evolution and deep-Earth geology, according to Xinhua.The vertical well, the second across the world, also made other engineering breakthroughs globally, including the deepest liner cementing, deepest wireline imaging logging and fastest onshore drilling to exceed 10,000 meters.The drilling began on May 30, 2023, with the first 10,000 meters completed in 279 days, and the final 1,000 meters of drilling took more than 300 days, during which active oil and gas indications were observed, according to a China Media Group report.

Wang Chunsheng, chief expert of the Tarim Oilfield of China National Petroleum Co, explained that every meter at such depth posed challenges, the CMG report said. "The team overcame numerous obstacles, including heavy loads, wellbore instability, drill fatigue, tool failures and severe formation loss," said Wang, stressing that the drilling successfully passed through 12 geological formations of the Tarim Basin, ultimately reaching high-quality oil- and gas-producing rock formations between 10,851 and 10,910 meters.

"This marks the first discovery of oil and gas beneath 10,000 meters on land globally, significantly expanding the scope of ultra-deep oil and gas exploration," Wang said, according to the CMG report.Shenditake 1 was equipped with the world's first 12,000-meter automated drilling rig, developed by China, establishing a controllable system for ultra-deep drilling. The operation set five records, including the deepest tail pipe cementing, deepest cable imaging logging, fastest drilling beyond 10,000 meters on land, and deepest core sampling in Asia.

Using core samples, rock cuttings and logging data, the researchers created Asia's first 10,000-meter geological profile, providing crucial data for deep Earth exploration and oil and gas research."The Shenditake 1 borehole has overcome a series of world-class challenges, including extreme depth, high temperatures and high pressure, successfully fulfilling both scientific exploration and oil and gas discovery tasks. This achievement has driven significant advancements in engineering technology," said He Jiangchuan, vice president of PetroChina, according to CMG.

He stated that the success of drilling beyond 10,000 meters is another significant breakthrough for China following its advancements in space and deep-sea exploration. More than 300 wells deeper than 8,000 meters have been drilled in the Tarim Basin, accounting for more than 80 percent of the country's total. Drilling beyond 10,000 meters will advance geological theories and technologies for ultra-deep oil and gas exploration, leading the way in extraction efforts, according to the CMG report.

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antwerpery said:

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Pretty big news. If there's large oil and gas deposits below 10km, there's potentially a massive amount of fossil fuels everywhere in China, even in the coastal areas, they just haven't been discovered yet due to their depth, or are known but can't be accessed due to to their depth. Of course this will be extremely expensive compared to other sources of oil/gas, and viability of oil/gas reserves is largely dependent on the prize of extraction, so bringing the prize down will be a big priority. This could be China's version of America's shale boom.

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The idea that global petroleum production would be on the cusp of a downhill slide was all the rage at industry events, environmental conferences and in academic debates during the first decade of this century.
But as the shale-oil boom took off in places like North Dakota and then Texas, those worries vanished as a point of conversation.
Some of the biggest voices in the shale patch are now talking about it this year at CERAWeek by S&P Global. It’s coming up because the top tier of crude targets is largely exhausted after roughly 15 years of intensive drilling, executives said.
“We don’t have many oil plays left in this country,” Scott Sheffield, one of shale’s pioneers, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on the sidelines of the conference.
“The inventory is getting worse, naturally, because we drill so many wells. You’re fighting the inventory deterioration at the same time you’re trying to improve efficiencies,” he said.
Occidental Petroleum Corp., one of the biggest shale operators, is bracing for a topping out of domestic crude production sometime in the next five years.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance expects nationwide oil output to plateau this decade and then hold flat for an undefined period of time.
“It’s going to be a slow decline beyond that because there’s a lot of resource” left to drill, Lance said.
Such concessions for waning output are at odds with US President Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra, which seeks supply growth to keep fuel prices low.
But there’s also optimism from executives that new technology will ultimately postpone the peak. For its part, Exxon Mobil Corp. is aiming to double the recovery rate, which averages about 6% to 8% across the industry.
“Every day we’re continuing to get better,” said Bart Cahir, the supermajor’s shale boss. “I always tell people, ‘It’s a horrible bet — to bet against innovation and technology.’”

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U.S. natural gas production from shale and tight formations, which accounts for 79% of dry natural gas production, decreased slightly in the first nine months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. If this trend holds for the remainder of 2024, it would mark the first annual decrease in U.S. shale gas production since we started collecting these data in 2000.

Total U.S. shale gas production from January through September 2024 declined by about 1%, to 81.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), compared with the same period in 2023, while other U.S. dry natural gas production increased by about 6% to 22.1 Bcf/d. Total U.S. dry natural gas production from January through September 2024 averaged 103.3 Bcf/d, essentially flat compared with the same period in 2023.

The decline in shale gas production so far this year has been driven primarily by declines in production in the Haynesville and Utica plays. From January through September 2024, shale gas production decreased by 12% (1.8 Bcf/d) in the Haynesville and by 10% (0.6 Bcf/d) in the Utica compared with the same period in 2023. At the same time, shale gas production in the Permian play grew by 10% (1.6 Bcf/d). Production in the Marcellus play, which leads U.S. shale gas production, remained flat.

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