Basin in Northwestern Qinghai Province Could Hold Hundreds of Million Tons of Untapped Oil

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Chaidamu Basin in northwestern Qinghai Province has become an important oil and gas supplier for the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau region in recent years, and research shows that the basin still has great untapped potential for oil and gas production. It was reported that Qinghai Oilfield Company has accelerated exploration efforts in the basin to achieve a goal of three 100 million-ton discoveries. At the same time, the company is striving to start drilling as early as possible on its Hongliuquan No. 116 and Xiandong No. 1 wells.

A major task for the remaining three years in the nation's 11th five-year plan (2006-10) for the company is to bring the oil field's oil and gas production capacity up to 10 million tons per year by 2010. Three focal exploration areas have been identified in the Chaidamu Basin because of their potential of containing reserves more than 100 million tons: the Hongliuquan-Shaxi slope area, the Wunan-Qiekelike area and the greater Lenghu-South Baxian area.

According to an official from Qinghai Oilfield, the basin's estimated natural gas reserve amounts to about 2,500 billion cubic meters. So far, the province's known natural gas reserve is 250.4 billion cubic meters, only 10% of the new reserve's estimated total. The quality of natural gas from Chaidamu Basin is considered high with methanol content as high as 99.6%. Given an annual production speed of 6.5 billion tons, production from the Basin should remain stable for more than 30 years. The basin's vast reserve and great oil and gas potential have made it into one of the nation's four largest oil fields. Presently, 300 million tons of natural gas is being produced and transferred through pipelines out of the province every year.

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