China's deepest oil well set to break through 10,000-meter depth mark

China's first scientific exploration well with a depth of over 10,000 meters in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is about to break through the 10,000-meter depth mark.

The drilling of the well, Shendi Take-1, has already reached 9,850 meters according to the latest reports on Sunday and new set of drill bits are installed for further digging.

The scientific exploration wells are designed to explore the evolution of Earth, the origin of life, climate change, disaster prevention and resource utilization. Compared to a regular oil well, the scientific exploration well is to explore the unknown territory that no one has explored before.

The digging challenges went exponentially when the depth went deeper. According to the project staff, 26 drill bits have been used to drill this well by far, of which 14 drill bits have been used for a distance of about 1,800 meters below 8,000 meters underground, compared to 12 drill bits for the initial 8,000 meters. It said a lot about the difficulties in ultra-deep drilling which could shorten the lifespan of a drill bit from 2,000 meters to 140 meters.

Tarim Basin is the country's largest petroliferous basin, accounting for more than 60 percent of the nation's onshore ultra-deep oil and gas resources. The natural gas produced from deep formations below 4,500 meters in the Tarim Basin, where the Shendi Take-1 well is located, exceeded 260 billion cubic meters.

In addition, Tarim Basin is also one of the most difficult areas to explore in China, partly because its oil and gas reserves lie between 6,000 and 10,000 meters underground, taking up 83.2 percent and 63.9 percent of the total.

The world's first 12,000-meter deep well automated drilling rig was used for the drilling with nearly 200 cutting-edge homegrown components.

The cooling systems and the key technologies for the drilling for the ultra-deep oil well showed upgraded performances compared to the regular drilling equipment, despite high temperature and high pressure.

It is 82 meters tall, equivalent to the height of a 24-story building. Compared with ordinary drilling rigs, its lifting capacity has been expanded from 300-400 tonnes to a maximum of 900 tonnes, which can lift 1,500 adult camels at the same time.

The drilling rig is equipped with a complete set of automated processing systems with complex robotic arms, reducing labor costs and greatly improving safety performance. In addition, this well also adopts a full-process Internet of Things (IoT) system to keep real-time monitoring and remote transmission of equipment status and operating parameters.