China completes drilling of Asia's deepest vertical well

BEIJING/URUMQI, Feb. 20: China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced Thursday that it has completed the drilling of the deepest vertical well in Asia, as a borehole reached a depth of 10,910 meters in China's northwestern desert.

Located in the heart of the Taklimakan Desert in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the well, known as "Shenditake 1," is a scientific exploration project. Beyond the search for oil and gas resources, the well is also designed to advance the study of the Earth's evolution and deep-Earth geology.

The vertical well, the second across the world, also made other engineering breakthroughs globally, including the deepest liner cementing, deepest wireline imaging logging and fastest onshore drilling to exceed 10,000 meters.

According to CNPC, drilling began on May 30, 2023. It took over 580 days to complete the 10,910-meter drilling, with more than half of the time -- some 300 days --- spent on the final 910 meters. The well has penetrated 12 geological formations, ultimately reaching rock layers that date back over 500 million years.

To support the project, CNPC developed the world's first 12,000-meter automated drilling rig and a suite of advanced ultra-deep well logging tools.

Chinese scientists have also compiled the country's first comprehensive ultra-deep stratigraphic profile through systematic analysis of the 10,000-meter core samples and data, offering critical insights into the Earth's subsurface composition and tectonic history.