China starts drilling the second 10,000-meter-borehole in SW China’s Sichuan

China’s second superdeep borehole at a planned depth of 10,000 meters has begun drilling in Southwest China’s Sichuan Basin, which may reach to the targeting superdeep natural gas reserve area, China Media Group reported on Thursday.

The borehole has a designed depth of 10,520 meters, and is the first 10,000-meter- borehole in the area. Chen Lili, deputy general engineer of the regional company under China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the operator of the program, said the drilling will confront complex underground pressure system, high temperature of 224 C, and ultra high pressure of 138 megapascals.

In that case, CNPC together with relevant drilling operators launched technique breakthrough campaign, designed a comprehensive drilling plan that can address issues of high temperature and high underground pressures, 90 percent of which will be facilitated with domestically made equipment, according to the report.

The 10,000-meter- borehole in the Sichuan Basin is the second superdeep borehole following the first one which began drilling in the Tarim Basin, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on May 30 this year.

Experts said that the drilling of borehole with 10,000 meters depth is the super project in global oil and gas exploration sector, which has become one of the most important benchmarks that evaluate the level of relevant technology and equipment, CMG reported.