China's deep-earth oil and gas development achieves a key leap

On October 1, the Zhentan 1 well in the Tarim Oilfield, located on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, completed coring operations, retrieving a continuous 6-meter core from a depth of 8,080 meters underground. These gray rocks come from the Cambrian Yurtus Formation and have lain dormant underground for 500 million years. This is the first time that source rocks have been extracted at such a depth on the northwestern margin of the Tarim Basin. Xu Yanan, director of the Platform Basin Exploration Project Department of the Exploration Division of PetroChina Tarim Oilfield: "These are treasures. With these precious rocks, we can analyze and evaluate the hydrocarbon generation capacity below 8,000 meters, the thickness of oil and gas, and the maturity of oil and gas. This is also another time, following the 10,000-meter scientific exploration well, that we have extracted source rocks below 8,000 meters, demonstrating important progress in our drilling technology." China's deep-earth oil and gas exploration is ushering in a key leap forward. Up to now, the Tarim Oilfield has drilled more than 270 wells deeper than 8,000 meters, accounting for more than 50% of China's total. In 2025, it took the lead in completing drilling of China's first ultra-deep well exceeding 10,000 meters - the Shendi Take 1 well. Its annual ultra-deep oil and gas production exceeds 20 million tons, and it has built China's largest ultra-deep oil and gas production base, leading and driving progress in related industries and key core technologies for China's deep-earth oil and gas exploration and development.