CNPC's New Technique to Help in CBM Extraction

A new commercial application launched by China National Petroleum Corp, known as multi-branched horizontal well-drilling can help in low cost exploration of China’s coal bed methane.

China Daily has reported citing a report by consultancy Wood Mackenzie, that coal-bed methane could contribute 14 percent of China's domestic supply of gas by 2030, but lack of expertise in techniques used to retrieve it makes the fuel little used.

The new application may help increase the country's output of coal-bed methane.

"CNPC recently signed contracts with several domestic companies to explore for coal-bed methane and provide them with the independently-produced components needed to produce the gas. That will speed up the production," Shen Ruichen, director of CNPC's coal-based methane and reservoir project institute, told China Daily.

Before CNPC's technological advance, foreign groups had largely held a monopoly over the production of equipment needed to connect horizontal and vertical mine shafts underground, a requirement in multi-branched horizontal drilling, the newspaper said.

Chian Dailys said that CNPC's innovation promises to reduce the cost of a single well by a third, taking it to less than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million).

By 2015, CNPC expects a quarter of the exploration for the gas will be done with the use of independent multi-branched horizontal wells.

CNPC said multi-branched horizontal wells are capable of producing up to 10 times as much of the gas a day as are vertical shafts.