Onshore China Research Articles

China's onshore wind energy potential in the context of climate change

China has great potential for developing renewable energy to achieve its carbon neutrality goals. Orderly development of renewable energy is essential to enhance resource utilization efficiency and ensure safety during the energy system transition process. This study presents a thorough assessment of China's onshore wind power potential by considering the land suitability, the potential and temporal characteristics, and the impacts of climate change. The high-resolution maps combining wind resources with land conditions and climate scenarios are produced to provide insights into system planning, grid integration, and flexibility management. The results show that the capacity potential of onshore wind energy in China is 9.6 TW with an annual generation of 12.6 PWh, and 83 % of total capacity has a cost advantage with the levelized cost lower than the 60 $/MWh threshold. By comprehensively considering geographical, economic, and social criteria, around 8.1 % of the national territorial area is identified as the most suitable area for wind power development, primarily in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. The annual electricity generation from these areas can fulfill nearly 69 % of the nation's electricity demand. Future climate change projections indicate a remarkable generalized drop by 18 % in the north and a slight increase by 7 % in the south under the RCP 8.5 scenario. However, significant changes in wind resources are mostly within restricted areas, suggesting that future climate change would like to bring negative but limited impacts on wind power production in China.

Hydrocarbon accumulation characteristics in basement reservoirs and exploration targets of deep basement reservoirs in onshore China

Based on the global basement reservoir database and the dissection of basement reservoirs in China, the characteristics of hydrocarbon accumulation in basement reservoirs are analyzed, and the favorable conditions for hydrocarbon accumulation in deep basement reservoirs are investigated to highlight the exploration targets. The discovered basement reservoirs worldwide are mainly buried in the Archean and Precambrian granitic and metamorphic formations with depths less than 4 500 m, and the relatively large reservoirs have been found in rift, back-arc and foreland basins in tectonic active zones of the Meso-Cenozoic plates. The hydrocarbon accumulation in basement reservoirs exhibits the characteristics in three aspects. First, the porous-fractured reservoirs with low porosity and ultra-low permeability are dominant, where extensive hydrocarbon accumulation occurred during the weathering denudation and later tectonic reworking of the basin basement. High resistance to compaction allows the physical properties of these highly heterogeneous reservoirs to be independent of the buried depth. Second, the hydrocarbons were sourced from the formations outside the basement. The source-reservoir assemblages are divided into contacted source rock-basement and separated source rock-basement patterns. Third, the abnormal high pressure in the source rock and the normal–low pressure in the basement reservoirs cause a large pressure difference between the source rock and the reservoirs, which is conducive to the pumping effect of hydrocarbons in the deep basement. The deep basement prospects are mainly evaluated by the factors such as tectonic activity of basement, source-reservoir combination, development of large deep faults (especially strike-slip faults), and regional seals. The Precambrian crystalline basements at the margin of the intracontinental rifts in cratonic basins, as well as the Paleozoic folded basements and the Meso-Cenozoic fault-block basements adjacent to the hydrocarbon generation depressions, have favorable conditions for hydrocarbon accumulation, and thus they are considered as the main targets for future exploration of deep basement reservoirs.

Dynamic interwell connectivity analysis of multi-layer waterflooding reservoirs based on an improved graph neural network

The analysis of interwell connectivity plays an important role in the formulation of oilfield development plans and the description of residual oil distribution. In fact, sandstone reservoirs in China's onshore oilfields generally have the characteristics of thin and many layers, so multi-layer joint production is usually adopted. It remains a challenge to ensure the accuracy of splitting and dynamic connectivity in each layer of the injection-production wells with limited field data. The three-dimensional well pattern of multi-layer reservoir and the relationship between injection-production wells can be equivalent to a directional heterogeneous graph. In this paper, an improved graph neural network is proposed to construct an interacting process mimics the real interwell flow regularity. In detail, this method is used to split injection and production rates by combining permeability, porosity and effective thickness, and to invert the dynamic connectivity in each layer of the injection-production wells by attention mechanism. Based on the material balance and physical information, the overall connectivity from the injection wells, through the water injection layers to the production layers and the output of final production wells is established. Meanwhile, the change of well pattern caused by perforation, plugging and switching of wells at different times is achieved by updated graph structure in spatial and temporal ways. The effectiveness of the method is verified by a combination of reservoir numerical simulation examples and field example. The method corresponds to the actual situation of the reservoir, has wide adaptability and low cost, has good practical value, and provides a reference for adjusting the injection-production relationship of the reservoir and the development of the remaining oil.

Cost dynamics of onshore wind energy in the context of China's carbon neutrality target

Wind energy has become one of the most important measures for China to achieve its carbon neutrality goal. The spatial and temporal evolvement of economic competitiveness for wind energy becomes an important concern in shaping the decarbonization pathway in China. There has been an urgent need in power system planning to model the future dynamics of cost decline and supply potential for wind power in the context of carbon neutrality until 2060. Existing studies often fail to capture the rapid decline in the cost of wind power generation in recent years, and the prediction of wind power cost decline is more conservative than the reality. This study constructs an integrated model to evaluate the cost-competitiveness and grid parity potential of China's onshore wind electricity at fine spatial resolution with updated parameters. Results indicate that the total onshore wind potential amounts to 54.0 PWh. The average levelized cost of wind power is expected to decline from CNY 0.39 kWh−1 in 2020 to CNY 0.30 and CNY 0.21 kWh−1 in 2030 and 2060. 28.3%, 67.6%, and 97.6% of the technical potentials hold power costs lower than coal power in 2020, 2030, and 2060.

Grading Evaluation and Ranking of CO2 Sequestration Capacity in Place (CSCIP) in China's Major Oil Basins: Theoretical, Effective, Practical and CCUS‐EOR

AbstractBecause it is necessary to focus on differences in regional oil reservoirs and determine the priority of the CCUS‐EOR (Carbon capture, utilization, and storage‐enhanced oil recovery) deployment under China's net‐zero CO2 emission target, systematic and regional evaluations of CO2 sequestration capacity in major oil basins are needed considering the geofluid properties—carbon sequestration capacity in place (CSCIP)—where the ‘in place’ indicates actual geological formation conditions underground, e.g., formation temperature and pressure. Therefore, physical properties of geofluids at different depths with different geologic temperatures and pressure conditions are considered for the CO2 sequestration capacity evaluation in place, including shallow (800–2000 m), medium (2000–3500 m), deep (3500–4500 m) and ultra‐deep (4500–8000 m) depth intervals. A modified evaluation model with four grading levels is proposed, combining the P‐V‐T equations of state (EOS) and evaluation equations of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), including theoretical, effective, practical, and CCUS‐EOR CSCIP, which is more consistent with geofluid physical properties underground, to make the grading evaluation and ranking of the CSCIP in China's major oil basins. Then, the grading CSCIP of 29 major oil basins in China was evaluated based on the petroleum resources evaluation results of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China (MNRC) during China's 13th Five‐Year Plan period. According to the grading evaluation results, suggestions for China's CCUS‐EOR prospective regions are given as follows: shallow oil fields of the Songliao Basin in Northeast China, shallow–medium oil fields of the Bohai Bay Basin in East China, medium oil fields of the Zhungeer Basin in West China, and medium oil fields of the Ordos Basin in Central China; all are potential areas for the CCUS‐EOR geological sequestration in China's onshore oil basins. In addition, in China's offshore oil basins, shallow–medium oil fields of the Bohai Sea and shallow oil fields of the Pearl River Mouth Basin have potential for CCUS‐EOR geological sequestration.

Optimizing China's onshore wind farm layout crucial for carbon neutrality

China is taking renewable energy seriously for meeting ambitious carbon neutrality goal, and eagerly filling available space to harness the wind power. It is therefore crucial to rethink the unintended consequences. Herein, we employ the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to assess the onshore wind farm from the perspective of aligning carbon neutrality goal in China. We find that the total carbon emissions of onshore wind farm in China in 2018 was ca. 11 Mt. CO2e, or 24.9 gCO2e per kWh on average, which indeed mitigated ca. 290 Mt. CO2e for replacing conventional coal power. Moreover, province-level carbon emissions and emission intensity outputs have been quantified. It shows that China's coastal provinces are preferred regions for the development of wind power industry after evaluating of China's onshore wind farms layout under multiple indicators. However, if existed wind farm layout mode which presents a significant conflict between resource potentials and demand market can be optimized, a scenarios-based analysis shows that 2.4 to 6.2 billion metric tons CO2e can be probably avoided every year between 2023 and 2060. This amount probably equals over half of the carbon emissions from fuel combustion in China.

China's provincial wind power potential assessment and its potential contributions to the "dual carbon" targets.

Wind power development is one of the important measures to achieve China's committed dual carbon targets (carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060). This study assessed the technical and economic potential of China's onshore and offshore wind power potential through Geographic Information System (GIS) layer overlay and raster calculations. Based on the assessment, provincial contributions of wind power under the 'dual carbon' targets are also estimated. The results show that (a) the technical potential of China's wind power is 25.57PWh/year, and the economic potential is 11.69PWh/year. Fifty-six percent of the potential is located in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Gansu provinces, while 75% of the offshore potential is distributed over the coastal provinces (Liaoning, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Shandong). (b) Ten provinces, including Anhui, Jiangxi, and Henan, have insufficient remaining economic potential. In comparison, five provinces, including Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Yunnan, and Ningxia, have advanced wind power development, with 2020 as the base year. (c) For carbon neutrality, China's potential contributions of wind power may need 1088-2620GW by 2060. Eight provinces can constitute 72% of the new potential contributions. China may need approximately 9.23 trillion CNY (2020 constant price) investment in wind power for the contributions.

Research on the control of slack flow of China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline

China-Kazakhstan pipeline is the first land import transnational crude oil pipeline in China. It is also the only long-distance crude oil channel connecting the resources in the west of Kazakhstan and the two refineries in the east of Kazakhstan and exports to China. It undertakes the dual responsibilities of crude oil supply of the two refineries in the east of Kazakhstan and the crude oil guarantee of refineries in Western China. At present, the annual throughput of China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline accounts for about 20% of China's onshore crude oil imports. Therefore, the pipeline’s safe, stable and efficient operation plays an important role in ensuring the strategic security of energy in Western China. Since the China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline has commissioned, it has been found that there is slack flow in the pipeline under different working conditions, which has a great impact on the safe and stable operation of the pipeline and the measurement accuracy of commercial trade. In this paper, the causes of slack flow in China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline are studied, the potential location of slack flow is analyzed, and the boundary conditions of slack flow condition are defined. At the same time, control strategies to avoid slack flow under different conditions are formulated by using simulation technology. The research results will provide direct technical case support for reasonable formulation of operation scheme of China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline system and terminal station inlet pressure control strategy, so as to ensure safe, stable and efficient operation of the pipeline.

Should You Have More China in Your Portfolio? Putting Common Arguments for Increased China Exposure to the Test

Currently, China onshore and offshore equities represent benchmark weights of roughly 0.4% and 4%, respectively, in global portfolios. These small weights are largely a result of complex index inclusion rules focused on access, regulation, governance, and liquidity considerations; index providers do not specifically consider the investment thesis for including Chinese stocks in global benchmarks. In this article, we critically examine the most popular investment arguments in favor of a greater allocation to China onshore and offshore equities, as well as skeptical counterarguments to these claims. China is large in terms of GDP and market capitalization—so what? China’s GDP growth is projected to be 5% higher than developed markets—but there is no empirical relationship between GDP growth and equity market returns. Chinese equities have lower correlation with global markets—but they also have much higher volatility, calling into question the diversification benefits investors seek. The Chinese stock market is filled with non-professional retail investors—but does that lead to greater alpha, and can investors capture that through long exposure to a market with questionable accounting and large differences in regulatory practices? We settle these debates through hard data and straightforward empirical tests. <b>TOPICS:</b>Emerging, private equity, portfolio theory, portfolio construction, equity portfolio management, mutual fund performance <b>Key Findings</b> • A number of popular arguments for including more Chinese equities in investors’ equity portfolios are based on the size of China’s GDP, the size of China’s equity market capitalization, or the growth in China’s GDP. These considerations do not appear to be correlated with portfolio returns or risks. • However, other arguments based on low correlation, faster corporate earnings growth, and high potential for alpha can be empirically verified and do provide meaningful return-risk improvement to investor portfolios. • China is one of the very few economies in the EM basket that has delivered high earnings growth and high equity return against the backdrop of strong GDP growth. This is generally not observed in other EM economies. • China onshore equities have a surprisingly low correlation with its own offshore listed equities and with global equities. The onshore equities historically also have provided faster earnings growth and higher returns than the offshores shares. The heterogeneity between onshore and offshore shares makes the current 90%/10% split between offshore/onshore shares dictated by mainstream indexes suboptimal.

New concepts for deepening hydrocarbon exploration and their application effects in the Junggar Basin, NW China

The Junggar Basin is one of the major petroliferous basins with abundant oil and gas resources in onshore China. Around 2010 and thereafter, the hydrocarbon exploration for finding giant fields in the basin faced tough difficulties: in the northwestern margin area, no significant breakthrough has been made for long since seeking to “escape from the step-fault zone and extend to the slope area”; in the central part, the exploration for large lithologic-stratigraphic reservoirs stood still; since the discovery of the Kelameili gas field, no important achievement has been made in gas exploration. Under the guidance of “whole sag-oil-bearing” theory in the petroliferous basin, and based on the long-term study and thinking of the petroleum accumulation conditions and characteristics, the authors proposed several new concepts, i.e., a “thrust-induced second-order fault step” hiding under the northwestern slope area; six “hydrocarbon migrationward surfaces” favorable for hydrocarbon accumulation; promising natural gas resource. These concepts have played an important role in the discoveries of Wells Mahu1 and Yanbei1 as well as the confirmation and expansion of Permian-Triassic billion-ton-scale petroliferous areas in Mahu. The fairway of new discoveries has also appeared for natural gas exploration in Wells Fu26, Gaotan1 and Qianshao2, suggesting that the surrounding regions of the highly matured source kitchen are of high possibility to form gas accumulations.

An integrated seismic study of a shale reservoir in the Sichuan Basin, onshore China

We describe an integrated seismic evaluation for the Longmaxi shale gas potential in the central part of the Sichuan Basin, onshore China, which benefits from innovations in high-density 3D seismic, borehole-based vertical seismic profiling (VSP), and passive seismic recording for microseismic monitoring. The geology of the basin has a complex history that creates several geophysical challenges, including strong multiple contamination and the requirement for high-resolution data to enable detailed structural and stratigraphic mapping. For the 3D surveys, we adopted a new wide-azimuth and high-density acquisition design. A large part of the processing was devoted to noise removal, optimizing surface-consistent processes including deconvolution, and thorough testing of data-driven internal multiple attenuation. Prestack depth imaging is important for accurate geosteering of long horizontal trajectories within a narrow target window, and our resulting images in depth provide a more planar target structure than with (more routine) time imaging. The more planar true structure was confirmed by drilling. For the borehole seismic calibration, vibroseis was used as the VSP source in preference to the standard use of explosives. This resulted in greater consistency of the waveforms and better amplitude and timing of events with which to constrain the 3D seismic processing and imaging. Surface microseismic monitoring of the stimulation was achieved using a new and bespoke design. The detected microseismic activity helped support and optimize the real-time fracture operations, mitigate casing deformation, obtain in-situ stress fields, and understand the control of preexisting geologic features. The innovations in surface seismic, VSP, and microseismic, along with the integration of other disciplines, contributed to the project's overall success.

An Analysis of China's Onshore and Offshore Exchange Rates-Adjusted Thermal Optimal Path Approach Based on Pruning and Path Segmentation.

The study of the lead-lag relationship between the Hong Kong offshore Renminbi (CNH) spot market and onshore (CNY) spot market is of great importance for its wide application in market risk management. In this paper, we study the correlation between the CNH and CNY spot markets in the contexts of daily closing price change and the 2011–2016 Bid-Ask spread (BAS). We test the existence of causality relation between CNH/CNY pairwise change and BAS by using the conventional method of vector auto-regression (VAR) model in the observation period. Furthermore, we detect the local lead-lag dependence relationships between CNH/CNY pairwise change and BAS by using a non-parametric approach-adjusted Thermal Optimal Path (TOP) method. Through introducing a Pruning and Path segmentation algorithm, we address the problem of computation infeasibility that may be encountered in application of the existing TOP method for the detection of lead-lag relationship between two time series with long time duration. Theoretical analyses and simulation results are presented to verify validity of adjusted TOP method in the setting of big time-series data set. This study also provides some interesting findings: (1) the offshore CNH market is informationally integrated with the onshore CNY market from two aspects of closing price change over two consecutive single days and BAS used as a proxy for market liquidity; (2) Local dependency between the two markets changes with economic conditions changing, which would facilitate both investor and policy maker decision making.

Connotation and strategic role of in-situ conversion processing of shale oil underground in the onshore China

Abstract In-situ conversion processing (ICP) of shale oil underground at the depth ranging from 300 m to 3 000 m is a physical and chemical process caused by using horizontal drilling and electric heating technology, which converts heavy oil, bitumen and various organic matter into light oil and gas in a large scale, which can be called “underground refinery”. ICP has several advantages as in CO2 capture, recoverable resource potential and the quality of hydrocarbon output. Based on the geothermal evolution mechanism of organic materials established by Tissot et al., this study reveals that in the nonmarine organic-rich shale sequence, the amount of liquid hydrocarbon maintaining in the shale is as high as 25% in the liquid hydrocarbon window stage (Ro less than 1.0%), and the unconverted organic materials (low mature-immature organic materials) in the shale interval can reach 40% to 100%. The conditions of organic-rich shale suitable for underground in-situ conversion of shale oil should be satisfied in the following aspects, TOC higher than 6%, Ro ranging between 0.5% and 1%, concentrated thickness of organic-rich shale greater than 15 meters, burial depth less than 3 000 m, covering area bigger than 50 km2, good sealing condition in both up- and down-contacting sequences and water content smaller than 5%, etc. The shale oil resource in China's onshore region is huge. It is estimated with this paper that the technical recoverable resource reaches 70−90 billion tons of oil and 60−65 trillion cubic meters of gas. The ICP of shale oil underground is believed to be a fairway to find big oil in the source kitchen in the near future. And it is also believed to be a milestone to keep China long-term stability of oil and gas sufficient supply by putting ICP of shale oil underground into real practice in the future.

Status and prospects of exploration and exploitation key technologies of the deep petroleum resources in onshore China

In recent years, China's deep oil and gas exploration and exploitation have developed rapidly. Technological advancements have played an important role in the rapid exploration and highly efficient development. Aimed at the complex engineering geological environment of deep oil and gas in China, this paper has combined the four technological systems that have made significant progress, mainly including: (1) seismic imaging and reservoir prediction techniques for deep–burial complex structures, includign “2W1S” technique (wide-band, wide azimuth, and small bin), RTM (Reverse Time Migration), integrated modeling technology for complex structures and variable velocity mapping technique, improving structural interpretation accuracy, ensuring high precision ofimaging, and prediction for deep geological bodies; (2) deep speed raising and efficiency drilling technology series, which significantly improved the drilling speed, in turn reduced the drilling cost and drilling risk; (3) development of a deep high-temperature and high-pressure logging technology series, which provided a guarantee for the accurate identification of reservoir properties and fluid properties; (4) the efficient development technology for deep reservoirs, especially the development and maturity of the reconstruction volume technology, improve the production of single well and the benefit of deep oil and gas development. This paper further points out the improvement direction of the four major technology series of deep oil based on the analysis of the current development of the four major technological systems. Moreover, the development of applicability and economy for technical system is the key to realize high efficiency and low-cost exploration and development of deep oil and gas.

Assessment of the economic potential of China's onshore wind electricity

The assessment of the economic potential of wind electricity is of critical importance for wind power development in China. Based on the wind resource data between 1995 and 2014 and geological assumptions, this paper calculates economic potential of China’s onshore wind electricity. Furthermore, it builds an econometric model to update the net-present-value model, based on a survey sample of various wind farms. Results show that the economic potential of China’s onshore wind electricity is 8.13PWh per year with a feed-in-tariff price at 0.60 yuan (about 9.6U.S. cents) per kilowatt-hour.

Production-Logging Tools Facilitate Well Testing in Challenging Environments

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper IPTC 17771, “Well Testing in Challenging Environments: A Case Study From Onshore China,” by Xin Ling Peng, Mei Sheng Liang, Jie Hu, Xiao Lei Wu, and Dong Lin Qin, Sinopec, and Prasanna Tellapaneni, Bo Nan Ren, Tao Zhang, and Zhi Hong Guo, Schlumberger, prepared for the 2014 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 10–12 December. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The Pugang gas field, one of the biggest inland gas discoveries of the last decade in China, has hydrogen sulfide (H2S) concentrations as high as 10%, making surface- and downhole-facilities design and execution challenging. Testing these wells also is difficult because of the surface risks inherent in conventional testing. Well testing using production-logging tools recently has been introduced in this field and has been of tremendous benefit to the operator in identifying the inflow zones and in performing welltest analysis. Field Introduction The Pugang gas field, discovered in 2002, is the second-largest gas field in China and the largest sour field discovered in the last decade. This field is north of Chongqing in the Sichuan basin. The reservoir fluid in this field is dry gas with high H2S (14.4%) and carbon dioxide (CO2) content (9.91%). The field is flanked on the west with a gas/water contact at 5140-m true vertical depth subsea. With no voidage-replacement mechanism in place yet, the production of water because of the contact movement is also a concern for the operator. Therefore, production logging as a reservoir-monitoring and -surveillance tool has been used since 2010, and more than 18 wells have been tested to date. Gas in the Pugang field is mainly contained in the Lower Triassic Feixianguan and Upper Permian Changxing formations. These carbonates are open-platform carbonates, mainly platformmargin shoal and reef sediments. The Feixianguan formation is composed mainly of carbonate platform- margin shoal and evaporitic environments. The main porosity types in the Feixianguan formation include intercrystalline, solution-enlarged intercrystalline, solution vugs, and compressional microfractures. Normally, the solution porosity is connected by fractures, which gives rise to the high permeability observed in this formation.

Innovation and prospect of geophysical technology in the exploration of deep oil and gas

Abstract The global situation of distribution, reserves and production of deep oil and gas are examined systematically, the progress and exploration achievement of onshore China deep geophysical technology are summarized, and the challenges and developing direction of deep geophysical technology are pointed out. Aiming at the exploration of deep onshore strata in China, the article analyzes the key geophysical problems, such as low signal-to-noise ratio, low resolution, low imaging accuracy and low amplitude-preservation, in the exploration of deep clastic, carbonate, and volcanic reservoirs, and presents the corresponding technical countermeasures such as wide-line large-array 2-D acquisition, wide-azimuth and high-density 3-D acquisition, anisotropic pre-stack depth migration (PSDM), reverse-time migration (RTM), complex structure modeling, and quantitative reservoir prediction. The analysis from two aspects, imaging of deep complicated structures and prediction of deep complicated reservoirs, shows that wide-frequency, amplitude-preservation, high-accuracy and information integration are the challenges to and key issues in the geophysical technology. It is pointed out that wide-frequency seismic acquisition, rock physical modeling of complex reservoirs, high-accuracy prestack amplitude-preservation imaging, comprehensive evaluation of complex reservoirs, non-seismic techniques, and drilling steering with seismic data are the key geophysical techniques needed to be developed in the future.

The multi-staged “golden zones” of hydrocarbon exploration in superimposed petroliferous basins of onshore China and its significance

Abstract The hydrocarbon generation model proposed by Tissot et al. points out the temperature and depth of “liquid HC window”, which has become a “golden zone” for hydrocarbon exploration. It has been proved by exploration that multi-staged “golden zones” for hydrocarbon exploration is commonly developed in the superimposed petroliferous basins of onshore China. There are three factors for the formation of multi-staged “golden zones” of HC exploration in the superimposed basins: (1) source kitchens developed with multi-periods and multi-centers which have verified to lead multi-stages of HC generation with large scale, (2) multi-staged reservoirs develop with large scale, (3) hydrocarbon accumulations occur with the multi-periods and late effectiveness. The conventional source kitchens, dispersed liquid HC-cracking gas kitchens and effective reservoirs with large scale join together to control the distribution of “golden zones” in timing and space. Explorational “golden zones” have the characteristics of inherited stacking and lateral variation. Paleo-highs, paleo-slopes, paleo-platform margins, and multi-period inherited fault zones control the distribution of hydrocarbons in the explorational “golden zones”. The concept of multi explorational “golden zones” helps to deepen the knowledge of new hydrocarbon distributional regularity which revealed recently in China. It shows that there exist economic resources in the deep section of the superimposed basins of onshore China. The hydrocarbon discovery history in the superimposed petroliferous basins has the feature of multi-peaks of proven reserve increase and lasting a quite long, which indicates a huge potential for future exploration.

Petroleum geological features and exploration prospect of deep marine carbonate rocks in China onshore: A further discussion

Deep marine carbonate rocks have become one of the key targets of onshore oil and gas exploration and development for reserves replacement in China. Further geological researches of such rocks may practically facilitate the sustainable, steady and smooth development of the petroleum industry in the country. Therefore, through a deep investigation into the fundamental geological conditions of deep marine carbonate reservoirs, we found higher-than-expected resource potential therein, which may uncover large oil or gas fields. The findings were reflected in four aspects. Firstly, there are two kinds of hydrocarbon kitchens which were respectively formed by conventional source rocks and liquid hydrocarbons cracking that were detained in source rocks, and both of them can provide large-scale hydrocarbons. Secondly, as controlled by the bedding and interstratal karstification, as well as the burial and hydrothermal dolomitization, effective carbonate reservoirs may be extensively developed in the deep and ultra-deep strata. Thirdly, under the coupling action of progressive burial and annealing heating, some marine source rocks could form hydrocarbon accumulations spanning important tectonic phases, and large quantity of liquid hydrocarbons could be kept in late stage, contributing to rich oil and gas in such deep marine strata. Fourthly, large-scale uplifts were formed by the stacking of multi-episodic tectonism and oil and gas could be accumulated in three modes (i.e., stratoid large-area reservoir-forming mode of karst reservoirs in the slope area of uplift, back-flow type large-area reservoir-forming mode of buried hill weathered crust karst reservoirs, and wide-range reservoir-forming mode of reef-shoal reservoirs); groups of stratigraphic and lithologic traps were widely developed in the areas of periclinal structures of paleohighs and continental margins. In conclusion, deep marine carbonate strata in China onshore contain the conditions for widely and intensively preserving hydrocarbons, so large oil or gas fields are expected.

Examining CCS Deployment Potential in China Via Application of an Integrated CCS Cost Curve

Previously published cost curves focusing on CO2 transport and storage have helped illustrate the large potential for CCS technologies to deploy in China. This paper examines results from recent work to incorporate the costs of CO2 capture and compression into integrated cost curves that more fully reflect expected costs across the set of large, industrial CO2 sources and better illuminate the possible value of CCS to this fast-growing economy. Results show that significant potential exists for large-scale deployment of CCS at costs less than $70/tCO2. Mapping the cost curve results confirms that the majority of existing CO2 point sources may be able to utilize CCS technologies, and that except for many sources in southern China onshore storage capacity appears accessible and sufficient for decades of large-scale deployment.