China Announces Biggest Oil Discovery in 40 Years

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced on May 3 that a major oil and gas field was found in northeastern China, the biggest one discovered in about 40 years, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.

The oil block, Nanpu, was found with a reserve of one billion tons of crude oil in Tangshan, a city in China's eastern Hebei Province and within range of Jidong Oil Field Company under CNPC.

The Nanpu block, which occupies 1,570 square kilometers including 570 square kilometers of coastline and 1,000 square kilometers of offshore territory, could become a major crude oil source for China, which has been seeking to lower its dependency on energy imports.

After 40 years of searching, CNPC finally found five oil fields in 2004 in the aforementioned area, which have oil reserves of 100 million tons altogether and produce one million tons of crude oil every year.

The Nanpu block is a highly effective oil field with a large reserve and a thick oil layer, where average single-well drilling oil reservoir thickness is 80 to 100 meters. During trial production, single vertical well daily production reached 80 to 100 tons and horizontal well reached 200 to 500 tons. The density of the oil field is 5.07 million tons per square meters; the main object depth is 1800 to 2800 meters.

Tangshan is by China's northeastern Bohai Bay, around which China's new industrial zones, including one in Premier Wen Jiabao's hometown Tianjin City, are located. Premier Jiabo celebrated Labor's Day at Jidong Field and said he couldn't get to sleep at hearing the good news, according CNPC.

The city triangle of Beijing (the capital city and a city directly under the central government), Tianjin (a city directly under the central government) and Tangshan (a city in Hebei Province which surrounds Beijing) is a major economic development zone in eastern China.

Jidong Oil Field Company is a local branch of China National Petroleum Corporation specializing in prospecting, developing, and sales of oil and gas.

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