The new oilfield is taking shape in the Nanpu block of the Jidong facility of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in Caofeidian in the city of Tangshan, north China's Hebei province. The Nanpu block, partly offshore, covers an area of 1,300 to 1,500 sq km and is expected to produce light, clear oils and gases. What is the secret lying behind the discovery of such a mammoth oilfield in the old zone that has been repeatedly prospected and explored, and it is possible for China to locate another big oilfield again? For this reason, Senior Reporter Xiong Jian of the prestigious People Daily, China's leading newspaper, has had an exclusive interview with Zou Caineng, deputy chief geologist and concurrently deputy director general of the PetroChina Exporation & Development Research Institute. And the questions and answers of the interview are as follows:

New concept leads to discovery of a big oilfield

Q. The discovery of the Nanpu oilfield was in an old, prospected zone, and how was the discovery made possible?

A: the Bohai Bay is a prospected oil zone, and so is Jidong, or eastern Hebei province. The discovery of the Nanpu oilfield is owed to a couple of factors, namely, 1. scientific decision made; 2. technological progress scored; 3. the sound, top rate work of organizing and, 4. correct theoretical guidance.

Theoretical guidance is particularly vital and crucial, and the discovery of the oilfield implies the inheritance, development and innovation for the theory on doubled oil & gas accumulated belts and other relevant theses. The crystallization of a kind of guidance has derived from the theory on geological cave-in with concentrated oil and gas reserves.

In the 21st century, in a bid to analyze the potential leftover resources, the lithological strata oil and gas reserves constitute the most realistic and vital oil and gas prospecting realm. The Nanpu oilfield in eastern Hebei province is a case in point. Practice of exploration has time and again given an eloquent proof that there is no other way out for the old, existing concept on prospected old zone, whereas there are bright, new ways with the use of new concepts of guidance with respect to the prospecting of old zones.

China's oil prospecting theory takes the lead worldwide

Q. What innovation has China made and what position has the country been in with respect to the theory on lithological strata oil and gas reserves?

A. During the period of the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), PetroChina had sponsored and organized systematic studies focused on three oil reserving layers of grit rocks, carbonate rocks and volcanic rocks with four types of geological basins, and made major breakthroughs in the relevant geological theory, technological innovations and actual production effect.

The core technology with regard to the lithological strata oil and gas reserves theory, which China has had developed, is in the advanced levels globally and, to compare with the geological theories of its kind, it is of major innovation type. It is also of guiding significance not only to the exploration of China's sedimentary facies oil and gas prospecting but to the exploration of the global lithological strata oil and gas reserves.

To explorate the old, prospected zone from a new vista or angle

Q. Where will the another big oilfield possibly emerge if the theory on lithological strata oil and gas is followed or used in other old, prospected zones?

A. Anywhere from 70 percent to 80 percent of the increased reserves have come from the mature old, prospected zone globally, and China is without exception. Old, prospected zones are generally in the hollow or depressed areas of the oil-and-gas-rich reserves, and trying efforts in the past scores of years were devoted mainly to locating geological structures as the leftover resources were chiefly in the secluded traps of lithological strata.

For instance, an oilfield with a billion tons of reserves has been spotted in the northwestern fringes of the worldfamous Junggar Basin in northern part of the Xinjiang uygur autonomous region, northwest China, with a history of almost a half-a-century-exploration. So in the years ahead, there are still renewed possibilities to spot another big oilfield with a reserve of more than one billion tons of oil and gas.

The discovery of the Nanpu oilfield constitutes just the beginning. So, it is also vital and important to re-explore the old, prospected zones. To date, what people really should do is to revaluate China's entire petroleum and gas reserves with the brand-new lithological idea or thinking. Preliminary practice, nevertheless, has helped triple the oil and gas reserves in eastern Hebei alone. People have been bent on making revaluations with a conclusions likely to embody the rather good, splendid prospects.

By People's Daily Online