Floodwaters dampen oil production in China

Output from China's biggest oil producing complexes has been slashed by the worst flooding to hit the country's northeastern region. More than 15,000 soldiers and oil field workers at Daqing petroleum complex are working around the clock to drain off floodwaters that have submerged more than 1,500 wells. Daqing petroleum administration officials are already cutting their forecasts for production for the complex, which accounts for almost 40% of China's oil output. Production is not

Sept. 7, 1998

3 min read

Output from China's biggest oil producing complexes has been slashed by the worst flooding to hit the country's northeastern region.

More than 15,000 soldiers and oil field workers at Daqing petroleum complex are working around the clock to drain off floodwaters that have submerged more than 1,500 wells.

Daqing petroleum administration officials are already cutting their forecasts for production for the complex, which accounts for almost 40% of China's oil output. Production is not expected to return to normal for at least 2 months in the dozens of fields that comprise the Daqing complex.

At presstime, production had been restored in 400 of the 1,504 inundated wells.

Fighting floods

According to Ma Fucai, president of China National Petroleum Corp., workers have had to pump off as much as 5-6 million cu m/day of water in order to return Daqing production to pre-flood levels.

Prior to the floods that have devastated northeastern China in July and August, Daqing had been producing about 1.1 million b/d of oil.

Three dikes were constructed to protect the Daqing complex from floodwaters. But persistent torrential rains caused floodwaters to overflow the dikes and inundate the wells.

As a result, Daqing had to shut in 569 producing wells, leading to a production drop of 11,410 b/d of oil.

Including the wells shut down earlier in the year for various reasons, Daqing's production drop this year has averaged almost 22,000 b/d down from its annualized average target of 1.118 million b/d.

Daqing's petroleum administration expects to produce at full capacity once all the flooded wells are restored to production in order to achieve its revised goal of 406.6 million bbl for 1998, down from the original goal of 408.8 million bbl.

Other fields affected

Flooding has affected other fields outside of the Daqing complex, directly or indirectly resulting in a further production loss of more than 625,000 bbl.

Two other major producing complexes in northeastern China, Liaohe and Jilin, have been also hit by floodwaters.

At Liaohe, during July-August, 2,029 of the field's more than 8,000 oil wells have been affected by floodwaters; 565 wells were shut in, cutting output at one point by 25,550 b/d. However, 1,464 partially flooded wells continued to produce more than 47,450 b/d. Liaohe has restored to production 213 of the shut-in wells, for a further 7,990 b/d.

At Jilin producing complex, since Aug. 18, 1,842 oil wells have been inundated by floodwaters, 329 of which have been shut in. Output fell to 72,832 b/d from 80,490 b/d for a cumulative production loss of almost 111,000 bbl.

In the first 7 months of this year, Daqing produced 215,350,000 bbl; Liaohe, 62,999,000 bbl; and Jilin, 17,374,000 bbl. In 1997, Daqing produced 408,873,000 bbl of oil; Liaohe, 109,792,000 bbl; and Jilin, 29,346,000 bbl.