China's Tarim basin gets discovery, additional exploration

Oct. 30, 2001
PetroChina Co. has a discovery in the Kuche trough of northwestern China's Tarim basin. Meanwhile, China Petrochemical Corp. is increasing exploration in the basin.

By an OGJ Online Correspondent

BEIJING, Oct. 30 -- PetroChina Co. has an oil and gas discovery in the Kuche trough of northwestern China's Tarim basin.

The Dina 11 flowed 444 b/d of crude and 116,4000 cu m/day of gas through a 12.8 mm choke from a zone at 6,051 m.

PetroChina said the indicated field extends 50 sq km and has probable gas reserves of 50 billion cu m.

Dina 11 is 20 km east of PetroChina's Dina 2 wildcat, which flowed 2.19 million cu m/day of gas in June.

Separately, China Petrochemical Corp. plans to invest 13 billion yuan in the next 5 years in exploration and production in the Tarim and Junggar basins. The goal is to raise crude reserves 500 million tonnes by 2005.

By the end of last year, the company had 13 discoveries in the two basins with proven reserves of 195 million tonnes of oil and 5.15 billion cu m of gas.

The company has exploration teams working on 16 blocks in the two basins.