Tarim Made Breakthrough in Oil/Gas ProductionAfter two years of intensive geological survey and exploration by over 600 sci-tech personnel, important breakthroughs have been made in both theory and practice in finding new oil/natural gas supplies in Tarim Basin. Among the many successes are four large/medium-sized oil/gas fields and 13 oil-bearing formations that have been discovered and 346 million tons of new oil/gas reserves proved.Oil/gas exploration in Tarim has been a key sci-tech project outlined for the periods of the 7th, 8th and 9th Five-year Plans. In 1999, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) decided on the project as a crucial undertaking along with those set for the 9th Five-year Plan period. On March 20, MST invited 15 experts including six academicians to check the project before it was launched in Beijing. After hearing out the report, experts spoke highly of the successes made. New oil/gas fields and oil-bearing formations found, especially Kara-2 gas field by Tarim Oilfield Company of China National Petroleum Corporation and Xinxing Petrochemical Co., Ltd. SINOPEC Corporation are in the way to help build up China's oil/gas reserves benefiting its "West-East Pipeline Project". In the view of experts, Tarim Basin claims an oil/natural gas reserve about 50 percent of Western China's. Scientists believe that prolonged geological evolution had contributed to Tarim's rich oil/gas reserves. It claims a complexity of geological conditions and many untouched fields to be further explored, for example, the reserves discovered so far only account for nearly 6 percent of the estimated amount, and no large oilfield in proportion to such a large basin has been found yet. China will take oil/gas exploration in Tarim as a strategic task and made greater effort for sci-tech research to realize an early substantial breakthrough during the 10th Five-year Plan period. By PD Online staff member Du Minghua |
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