China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) brought online its third 100-Bcm onshore field in the Sichuan Basin in China, the company announced March 14.

sinopec onshore room
(Source: Sinopec)

The West Sichuan Gas Field, part of the company’s Project Deep Earth in the Sichuan and Chongqing Natural Gas Base, is expected to produce 2 Bcm/year of natural gas and 130,000 tons of sulfur.

The West Sichuan Field features integrated gas extraction and desulfurization processes and natural gas sulfur recovery rates of over 99.9%, Sinopec said, and it produces gas that meets national standards with zero wastewater discharge.

Sinopec said it used engineering solutions for high yields with fewer wells to overcome challenges such as low porosity and permeability in the West Sichuan Field. Those innovations include an anti-collapse drilling fluid system and technologies for controlling borehole trajectories in ultra-deep wells over 8,000 m. Sinopec said the segmentation technology for ultra-long horizontal wells enhances productivity and reserves extraction of individual wells.

Since 2000, Sinopec has focused on exploring the Sichuan Basin, where it discovered the Puguang and Yuanba sour gas fields, both of which hold over 100 Bcm of reserves. In August, it announced finding 30.6 Bcm of gas at the Bazhong Field in the basin.

Onshore