China’s oil firm drills Asia’s deepest vertical well

Beijing/Urumqi: China's state-run CNPC claimed to have drilled the deepest vertical well in Asia, reaching a depth of 10,910 meters in the country's north-western desert.

Located in the heart of the Taklimakan Desert in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the project named "Shenditake 1" is designed to advance the study of the Earth's evolution and deep-Earth geology besides the search for oil and gas resources, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced on Thursday.  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.

Russia’s Kola Superdeep Borehole SG-3 with a vertical depth of 12,262 metres completed in 1989 was regarded as the world’s deepest human-made hole on Earth.

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, reaching rock layers that date back over 500 million years, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

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