PetroChina Makes Huge Gas Find in Sichuan Basin

PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer, has found 308.2 billion cubic metres of technically recoverable gas in southwest China’s Sichuan basin, according to parent CNPC, one of China’s largest gas discoveries in more than a decade.

China, the top energy user and fourth-largest consumer of gas, is racing to increase supply of the cleaner-burning fuel by boosting domestic exploration and raising imports, as demand is forecast to nearly quadruple between 2011 and 2030.

The Moxi block of An’yue field was officially certified to hold 440.4 bcm of proven geological reserves, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said in Monday report on its website (news.cnpc.com.cn), citing PetroChina’s Exploration and Development department.

PetroChina is now building a production facility able to pump 4 bcm a year under phase-1 development, which is to be followed by another 6 bcm/year in a second phase, CNPC said.

CNPC gave no timeline for the development and did not say how much it would cost. CNPC and PetroChina officials were not immediately available for comment.

The find is “set to provide abundant gas resources to the national gas grids,” said the report.

China’s largest gas find was announced in 2001 at the Sulige field, in northern China’s Ordos basin, also operated by PetroChina. That find held proven geological reserves of 533.7 bcm of natural gas as of 2003.

PetroChina has since 2011 drilled two exploration wells – Gao Shi-1 and Moxi-8 – in An’yue field, both striking high gas flows, according to the CNPC report.

Single-well production hit 1.1 million cubic metres per day on average during trial productions, and 600,000 cubic metres per day in development stages.

China produced a total of 121 bcm of natural gas last year, up 9.8 percent over 2012. The 2013 output includes 3 bcm of coal-seam gas and a tiny 200 million cubic metres of shale gas, the government said in January.

Imports last year amounted to 53.4 bcm, or 31.5 percent of China’s total implied gas demand of 169 bcm.

RIGZONE

5 Comments on "PetroChina Makes Huge Gas Find in Sichuan Basin"

Davy, Hermann, MO on Mon, 10th Feb 2014 1:53 pm 



Rock, put that into perspective for us humble amateur geologist!

I am all for any country that makes a find so we can cushion the pressure that will soon be on the whole fossil energy complex. We have a energy gradient awaiting us. How steep or gentle will this decent be. Our survival depends on this!

rockman on Mon, 10th Feb 2014 2:37 pm 



Davy – Big reserve numbers for sure: 300 bcm = 8 Tcf. But I would take it with a big grain of salt since they’ve only drilled two wells. But 15 to 30 million cf/day per well isn’t shabby. But their numbers indicate a very slow development growth: Phase 1 = 4 bcm/year = 11 million cm/day = about 5 to 10 wells. A few more to get to 6 bcm/yr. At that rate it will take 50 years to produce the 300 bcm. Couldn’t find anything about the nature of the reservoir. But it smells a little bit like a shale play. Perhaps the slow development rate has more to do with infrastructure limitations then reservoir limitations.

Put into perspective the max rate they offer represents about 11% of their imports and about 3.5% of domestic demand. A nice bump if accurate but not a game changer per se. The big growth demand is still oil.

bobinget on Mon, 10th Feb 2014 5:04 pm 



I agree RM, sounds like tight gas.
No word on distribution pipelines or proximity to population centers. North America has lots of ‘stranded’ natural gas that until this winter had limited
value. I’ve always wondered why power or cement or fertilizer or chemical plants can’t be built near well heads at distant locations. Certainty wires are less trouble to run than pipelines.

rockman on Mon, 10th Feb 2014 5:44 pm 



Bob – I think the main problem with much of the stranded NG is the long term supply capability. Lots of ways to utilize that NG but takes a good bit of capex that requires many years of operating to just recover the initial investments. That’s one of the big problems with pipeline economics: they need at least 5 years of constant throughput before the first $ of profit is seen. Unless the pipeliners are 110% sure of those future volumes they won’t build. In my experience pipeliners are the most conservative branch in the oil patch…they take nothing for granted.

sparky on Tue, 11th Feb 2014 12:35 am 



.
Sitchuan is a bit of a backwater as far as supplies are concerned , the best reticulation is around the North and the coast, it would be very nice for the locals ,
China will probably want to keep low key production ,
it will become a strategic reserve in case of unpleasantness with oversea deliveries