(WO) — Sinopec has secured official approval for 235.687 Bcm of proven geological reserves at the Ziyang Dongfeng shale gas field in China’s Sichuan basin, marking the country’s first ultra-deep shale gas field with reserves exceeding 100 Bcm.
The reserves were approved by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources and represent a major milestone for Sinopec’s “Project Deep Earth – Sichuan and Chongqing Natural Gas Base” initiative.
Located in the Sichuan basin, the Ziyang Dongfeng field targets the Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation, described by the company as the world’s oldest commercial shale formation, dating back roughly 540 million years. Reservoir depths range between 4,500 m and 5,200 m.
Sinopec said the project presented multiple technical challenges, including complex reservoir characteristics, difficult drilling conditions and extreme downhole temperatures and pressures associated with ultra-deep shale gas development.
To address those challenges, the company integrated artificial intelligence into geophysical imaging workflows to improve reservoir characterization and gas detection while advancing ultra-deep drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies.
“After over a decade of persistent effort, we have taken Cambrian shale gas from zero to a hundred-billion-cubic-meter-scale reserve base,” said Liu Wei, director of Sinopec Southwest Petroleum Bureau and representative of Sinopec Southwest Oil & Gas Company. “This validates the formation’s vast potential and gives us a replicable technical pathway to expand China’s shale gas development frontier.”
According to Sinopec, the company has now established a proprietary technical system for Cambrian ultra-deep shale gas exploration and development.
The latest discovery continues Sinopec’s broader expansion of China’s unconventional gas sector. The company launched China’s commercial shale gas industry in 2012 with discovery of the Fuling shale gas field, which later became the country’s first shale gas field with production capacity exceeding 10 Bcm annually.
Since then, Sinopec has continued expanding shale gas activity into deeper formations, including development of the Weirong, Qijiang, Yongchuan and Hongxing shale gas fields.
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