PetroChina Completes First Shale Gas Well

PetroChina completed drilling its first horizontal shale gas well last week, in Sichuan province in the southwest.

PetroChina drilled 1,079 metres horizontally at the Wei 201-H1 well, in the Weiyuan structure of the Sichuan basin, after sinking vertically 2,823 metres, marking the country's first horizontal shale gas drilling.

The horizontal drilling took 34 days as reported by China Petroleum Daily, the inhouse newspaper of PetroChina's parent, CNPC.

Petrochina, Asia's largest oil and gas producer, has yet to move to the more technically challenging part of the work - hydraulic fracturing -- to evaluate if the well has commercial gas flows.

The report did not mention when the appraisal work will start or if any foreign companies would be involved providing technical assistance.

In 2007, U.S. independent oil and gas producer Newfield Exploration Company agreed to jointly study with PetroChina shale gas resources in the Weiyuan area of Sichuan.

Source: Reuters