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Northwest Stratum Abound In Oil and Natural Gas Resources
The latest geological findings show that the Jurassic layer in China's northwest region, once considered barren of oil and gas, is actually abundant with viscous oil, light oil and natural gas resources. It is estimated that there is at least 13 billion tons of potential oil and natural gas reserves in this layer.
Jurassic layer was formed from sediments deposited 180 million to 135 million years ago. This layer is the primary source of coalmines. For a long time, Chinese geologists have wrestled with the question whether this layer could form oil and natural gas.
In recent years, geologists from the China Oil and Natural Gas Group have studied the oil and natural gas production capabilities of the Jurassic layer in the Northeast. Researchers have studied and analyzed the voluminous amounts of data and proposed a model where the Jurassic layer of coal can produce oil. Whether the coal can produce oil and natural gas depends on the critical question of how mature the coal is. If the coal matures early, it can turn into oil or gas. If it matures too late, it will not be able to turn into oil or gas. In the Northwestern region, some Jurassic coal layers have a high level of maturation, thus have the ability to produce oil and gas.
Dai Jinxing of China's Engineering Academy said this theory marked a great leap in China's oil and geological theory. It has monumental significance not only for the future of petroleum and gas exploration in the Northwest, but for other regions.
Using this new theory, every oil exploration departments in the Northwest has focused on the Jurassic layer and made a series of breakthroughs in recent years. So far, 23 oil fields including the 200 million ton Cainan and Shixi fields have been found in the Jurassic layer of the Tuha, Yanqi, Ili, Jungar and Santanghu basins in Xinjiang Province. About a dozen small- and medium-sized basins in Qinghai and Inner Mongolia containing oil or natural gas or have potential, proving that the Jurassic layer is rich with oil and natural gas resources.
There are sixty sediment basins in the Northwest including Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Nixia, Xinjiang and Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia, which could have oil. The total area of Jurassic layer totals 1.46 million square kilometers and is predicted to have 13 billion tons of oil and natural gas. In the near future, the Jurassic layer will be the main target of oil and gas exploration in the Northwest.
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