Stories of High-Quality Development | Secure a solid foundation and diversity of the energy mix

Narrators:

Jiang Long, Senior Expert for Shale Oil Development Research, Shengli Oilfield Branch, Sinopec

Chen Xingyu, Manager of Production Technology Department, Sinopec Xinxing Xinjiang Green Hydrogen New Energy Co., Ltd.

The geological conditions of the Shengli Oilfield are like a plate that has been shattered and kicked around. After 65 years of extraction, its shallow oil reserves have grown increasingly scarce. So, we launched an all-out campaign to tap shale oil more than 3,500 meters underground.

The shale oil at Jiyang is characterized by deep burial depth and low thermal maturity. Moreover, it has complex fault systems, and the oil is thick and the pores are small, making extraction one of the toughest technical challenges in the world. To achieve a breakthrough, independent innovation must be the foundation.

With no established theories and no mature techniques, we had to start everything from scratch. The team measured 20,000 meters of core samples and conducted over 100,000 laboratory analyses. We developed a ternary-element theory of storage and flow, breaking through the global lower limit of maturity for shale oil development.

Following the theoretical breakthrough, technological refinements remained essential. The drilling period for wells at 6,000-meter depth shrank from 133 days to as fast as 17 days, while per-well investment saw a substantial decline.

Today, cumulative output at Shengli Oilfield's Jiyang Shale Oil Demonstration Zone has exceeded 2 million tonnes of oil, with newly discovered reserves amounting to 327 million tonnes. It is almost as if we've built a whole new Shengli Oilfield.

To secure our energy supply, fossil fuels remain the foundation, but new sources must be added to the mix.

In the Gobi Desert in Kuqa, northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where no existing experience was available to draw upon, we built the country's first 10,000-tonne photovoltaic green hydrogen demonstration project.

The principle of photovoltaic hydrogen production is simple: solar panels generate electricity, which electrolyzes water to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen is then piped into a refinery, replacing hydrogen previously produced from coal and natural gas. The difficulty lies in the mismatch between fluctuating photovoltaic power generation and the hydrogen production load.

To this end, the team innovatively developed a set of intelligent control technology, which relies on real-time backend computing power to match photovoltaic output, enabling stable low-load operation of electrolysis units. The green hydrogen produced is directly supplied to refining units, replacing traditional raw materials with zero-carbon hydrogen energy and reducing carbon emissions in the refining industry.

The path to green hydrogen refining is long and difficult, but the direction is clear. It links the old and new energy systems, bears significant implications for energy security, and is a question the industry must tackle in order to cut down carbon emissions.

While tapping into incremental production from old underground oilfields on one hand, we are also expanding into a new green hydrogen frontier in the Gobi Desert on the other. Through independent innovation, we have firmly kept our energy supply in our own hands.