A team from Sinopec Group conducts geological survey in Taklimakan Desert of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where is rich in oil and gas resources. (PHOTO: VCG)

By CHEN Chunyou

China has quickened its pace in constructing a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system.

According to the report given to the 20th CPC National Congress, China will advance the energy revolution. Greater efforts will be made to explore and develop petroleum and natural gas, discover more untapped reserves, and increase production.

Exploiting traditional energies

China is the largest energy consumer in the world, and its oil and gas supply is highly dependent on foreign countries. It is no surprise, therefore, that Sun Jinsheng, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the chief engineer at the CNPC Engineering Technology R&D Company Limited (CPET), stressed the urgency to deepen the oil and gas exploration.

For nearly a decade, China has made remarkable achievements in petroleum engineering. Many pieces of equipment are self-developed, such as the world-leading 7000 meter deep drilling rig and continuous pipe threading equipment. Some tools, like rotary steerable tools and long-distance expansion tools, are also no longer dependent on imports.

Oil and gas exploration has been expanded from the shallow layer to deep and extra-deep layer to date, aiming to tap into more underground resources, such as hot dry rock and hydrate.

Against this background, the exploitation of oil and gas is faced with a more demanding geological environment, which requires high-performance equipment, and high-temperature and high-pressure resistance tools, said Sun.

To have a safe and efficient exploration of oil and gas, in October 2022, CPET, China University of Petroleum, and Southern University of Science and Technology were jointly involved in a project, which focused on tackling major basic scientific obstacles in developing ultra-deep and extra-deep oil and gas.

This project has managed to master drilling fluids technology, which can resist ultra-high temperatures, and break through the bottlenecks in drilling and production flow control of ultra/extra-deep oil and gas reservoirs.

Developing new energies

Energy transformation is being accelerated across the world. China's new energy industry has become increasingly competitive, with broad market prospects and great potential for development.

More than half of the world's top 10 power battery enterprises are from China, and the consumption of power battery products from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) has ranked first globally for five consecutive years.

Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, said, in order to remain competitive in the energy sector, it is necessary to strengthen the exploitation of domestic lithium resources and stabilize the supply of upstream mineral resources while promoting battery recycling.

In addition, it is required to create eco-friendly advanced technologies, processes and equipment, which are the prerequisite for saving energy and reducing consumption and carbon emissions.

Zeng also stressed that new energy enterprises should cooperate with global industry chains of new energy, making positive contributions to the high-quality growth in this sector.