China has achieved fruitful results in the oil and gas industry

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's oil and gas industry achieved remarkable results. Ten new oil fields with an annual output of over 100 million tons and 19 new gas fields with an annual output of over 100 billion cubic meters were added. The cumulative proven geological reserves of oil and natural gas increased by over 7 billion tons and 7 trillion cubic meters respectively, which were about 43% and 40% higher than those during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

Behind this achievement lies the result of domestic oil enterprises continuously intensifying their efforts in oil and gas exploration and development.

China National Petroleum Corporation: Advancing in depth and conducting all-round exploration

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has achieved major breakthroughs in multiple basins including Tarim, Sichuan and Ordos with a strategic layout of "in-depth advancement and all-round exploration". From ultra-deep layers to shale layers, from coal layers to new oil fields, a series of achievements have injected strong impetus into the improvement of China's independent oil and gas security capacity.

The year 2023 can be regarded as a "breakthrough year" for Tarim. In January, the Chatian 1 well, deployed in the Wuchia Formation zone of the Western Tianshan Fault Zone in the Southwest Depression, completed drilling tests and obtained industrial oil and gas flow, presenting a large-scale exploration scene of 1 billion tons of oil and gas. In September, the Xiongtan 1 well brought good news, obtaining high-yield Marine oil and gas flow for the first time in this area, confirming that the Marine oil and gas reserves in the western part of Tabei - Yingmali region have the potential to reach hundreds of millions of tons.

The Junggar Basin at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains is also full of highlights. In 2022, the discovery of a 600-billion-ton oil area in the Fengcheng Formation of the Permian system in the Mahu Depression of the Junggar Basin was selected as one of the "Top Ten Geological Exploration Achievements of the Year". Entering 2025, the exploration of shale oil in the Fengcheng Formation in the northern part of Mahu Lake has achieved new breakthroughs, continuously expanding the resource reserves in this area.

In recent years, the Sichuan Basin has achieved leapfrog development in both conventional and unconventional natural gas exploration, and has established a new gas supply pattern featuring multi-level systems and wide coverage.

In 2022, Luzhou deeply implemented the country's first trillion-cubic-meter shale gas field, marking another significant achievement following the trillion-cubic-meter shale gas fields in the middle and shallow layers of Changning and Weiyuan. In October 2023, the Datian 1 well achieved a high-yield industrial gas flow test, marking a comprehensive breakthrough around the rifting trough in the Sichuan Basin and revealing that the area has a resource prospect of trillions of cubic meters.

In recent years, the Ordos Basin has achieved diversified breakthroughs in resource exploration in multiple fields such as shale oil, coal, rock and gas. In 2019, Changqing Oilfield made a major breakthrough in the Qingcheng area, with proven shale oil reserves of 359 million tons. In less than three years since then, the cumulative proven geological reserves have exceeded 1 billion tons, making it the largest shale oil field in terms of proven reserves in China at present.

Breakthroughs in the coal, rock and gas sector have opened up a new track for unconventional natural gas. In August 2024, the Ordos Basin added 336.6 billion cubic meters of proven coal, rock and gas geological reserves and 1 trillion cubic meters of predicted reserves, establishing China's first trillion-cubic-meter coal, rock and gas gas field.

In the traditional oil and gas production areas in eastern China, the old basins are constantly exploring new potential, injecting new vitality into the energy supply in the east.

In 2021, the Gulong Shale Oil in Daqing Oilfield added 1.268 billion tons of predicted geological reserves of oil, achieving a major strategic breakthrough. In 2023, Dagang Oilfield successfully discovered two billion-ton-scale reserve increase battlefields in the Cangdong-Qikou deep depression area, providing an important resource foundation for the sustainable development of the old oilfield.

In the Linhe Depression of the Hetao Basin, a brand-new oil-rich zone with an annual output of over 100 million tons has emerged - the Bayan Oilfield. In 2022, the Xinghua 11 and 12 blocks added 124.38 million tons of proven reserves, achieving a consecutive two-year transfer of over 100 million tons of reserves and forming the Bayan Oilfield with an overall scale of 259 million tons of reserves.

Sinopec: Deepening and Innovating, making all-out Efforts

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Sinopec has made all-out efforts in the field of oil and gas exploration, successively discovering multiple gas fields with a capacity of over 100 billion cubic meters and oil fields with a capacity of over 100 million tons.

As China's first oil and gas project named "Deep Earth Engineering", the Shunbei Oil and Gas Field Base is hailed as "Deep Earth No.1" and was the first to break through the 8,000-meter ultra-deep oil and gas exploration forbidden zone. At present, Sinopec has over 140 oil and gas Wells at a depth of more than 8,000 meters in the Shunbei Oil and Gas Field base and has discovered four oil and gas areas with an annual output of over 100 million tons.

It is worth mentioning that in March 2023, the Shunbei 84 inclined well test achieved high-yield industrial oil and gas flow. As of now, a total of 22 Wells in this gas field have achieved high-yield oil and gas flow of over 1,000 tons, marking China's first entry into the era of 1,000-ton Wells on land in Asia. As a core area for increasing natural gas reserves and production in China, Sinopec's "Deep Earth Project - Sichuan-Chongqing Natural Gas Base" has also been reporting frequent good news. 2024 and 2025 will be the explosive years when its natural gas exploration achievements are concentrated.

In 2024 alone, Sinopec submitted proven reserves of 121.356 billion cubic meters for the Fuling Shale Gas Field, an additional 55.159 billion cubic meters for the Tongnanba Gas Field, and 133.012 billion cubic meters for the Hexingchang Gas Field.

On this basis, the cumulative reserves of the Fuling Shale Gas Field have reached 1,018.88 billion cubic meters, making it the first shale gas field of Sinopec with a reserve of over one trillion cubic meters. The cumulative reserves of the Tongnanba Gas Field have reached 106.6 billion cubic meters, becoming another gas field with a reserve of over 100 billion cubic meters in the Sichuan Basin.

In August 2025, Sinopec gave birth to two gas fields with a capacity of over 100 billion cubic meters, namely the Hongxing Shale Gas Field and the Yongchuan Shale Gas Field. Among them, the Hongxing Shale Gas Field has become the first gas field in Hubei Province with a volume exceeding 100 billion cubic meters and the first large-scale Permian shale gas field in China.

Sinopec has also achieved a number of significant results in the field of shale oil.

In the Bohai Bay Basin, the Shengli Jiyang Continental Faulted Lake Basin Shale Oil National Demonstration Zone was officially inaugurated in August 2022. After more than ten years of continuous research and development, the team's understanding of the potential of shale oil resources in the Jiyang Depression has made a leap forward. The estimated resource volume is as high as 10.5 billion tons, a figure comparable to the total amount of conventional oil and gas resources discovered in the Shengli Oilfield over the past 60 years.

In March 2025, after review and recognition by the Ministry of Natural Resources, both the Xinxing and Zhentong oilfields of Sinopec were identified as typical shale oil in continental faulted basins, with an additional proven geological reserve of 180.2749 million tons. Among them, the Xinxing Oilfield became the first shale oilfield in China to pass the review and filing of the Ministry of Natural Resources with a reserve of over 100 million tons.

In July 2025, Sinopec discovered the first shale oil field in the Sichuan Basin - Fuxing Oilfield. This is also the first oil field in Chongqing, marking a strategic breakthrough from nothing to something in shale oil in the southwest of China.

It is worth mentioning that on October 23, 2025, the Qiluye 1 well achieved a high-yield shale oil gas flow test and discovered a shale oil reserve base of over 100 million tons. This is a new discovery based on the already found gas field with a capacity of over 100 billion cubic meters in the area, forming a three-dimensional reservoir pattern of "gas at the bottom and oil at the top".

In addition, in March 2025, the Hai 301 well deployed by Sinopec in the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea achieved a high-yield oil and gas flow, setting a new record for the daily oil and gas production in the offshore depression of the Beibu Gulf and opening up a new path for oil and gas exploration in the Beibu Gulf

Cnooc: Parallel Development on land and Sea, Three-dimensional breakthroughs

In recent years, CNOOC has focused on key basins such as the Bohai Sea, the Pearl River Estuary, and the southeast of Hainan Province, advancing into deep and ultra-deep layers. It has continuously broken traditional perceptions and achieved multiple oil and gas discoveries of hundreds of millions of tons and hundreds of billions of cubic meters, laying a solid foundation for increasing domestic oil and gas reserves and production.

In 2023, CNOOC made a major breakthrough in the Bohai Sea by discovering the world's largest integrated metamorphic rock underground oilfield - the Bozhong 26-6 Oilfield, with proven geological reserves exceeding 130 million tons of oil equivalent.

In the field of shallow lithologic oil and gas reservoirs, the Bohai Sea area has also been reporting frequent good news. In September 2021, CNOOC discovered the Kenli 10-2 oilfield in the Laizhou Bay Depression of the Bohai Sea. The proven geological reserves of crude oil exceed 100 million tons, breaking the traditional perception that there are no billion-ton lithologic oilfields in the shallow layer of the Bohai Sea Depression zone.

In recent years, the exploration of deep and ultra-deep oil and gas in the Pearl River Mouth Basin has achieved major breakthroughs. Three oil fields with an annual output of over 100 million tons, namely Kaiping South, Lufeng South and Huixin South, have been successfully discovered, and the cumulative proven reserves have exceeded 500 million tons. The Kaiping South Oilfield, discovered in March 2024, has proven geological reserves of 102 million tons of oil equivalent and is the largest oilfield independently discovered in the deepwater field in China.

In March 2025, CNOOC discovered a 1.9 to 600 million-ton oilfield in Huizhou in the eastern part of the South China Sea. This is the first time that China has found a large-scale integrated oilfield in deep-sea to ultra-deep clastic rock.

In the Pearl River Estuary Basin, CNOOC has made a major breakthrough. In August 2024, CNOOC discovered the Lingshui 36-1 gas field in the southeast sea area of Hainan Island. The newly proven geological reserves of natural gas exceeded 100 billion cubic meters, making it the world's first large-scale ultra-deepwater and ultra-shallow gas field. This discovery has pushed the cumulative proven geological reserves of natural gas in the Yinggehai, Qiongdongnan and Pearl River Estuary basins in the northern part of the South China Sea to exceed 1 trillion cubic meters, turning the "trillion-meter gas area in the South China Sea" from a blueprint into reality.

In September of the same year, a natural gas well was drilled in the ultra-deepwater area of the Liwan 4-1 structure in the Pearl River Estuary Basin. The test showed that the daily unobstructed flow of natural gas was 430,000 cubic meters. This was the first major breakthrough made by China in the field of ultra-deepwater carbonate rocks.

In terms of onshore exploration, CNOOC has also made significant breakthroughs in the Ordos Basin. In October 2023, CNOOC announced the discovery of China's first deep coalbed methane field with a capacity of over 100 billion cubic meters - the Shenfu Deep Coalbed Methane Gas Field - at a depth of 2,000 meters in this area. The proven geological reserves exceed 110 billion cubic meters, laying a solid resource foundation for CNOOC's strategic goal of building a "trillion-cubic-meter gas field on land".

In terms of overseas layout, Guyana has become the most dazzling exploration star area for CNOOC. Since its first major discovery in 2015, Guyana has become the focus of global oil and gas exploration and a stable growth pole for production. Every year, 2 to 5 oil and gas fields rank among the top ten discoveries in the world.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the three major oil companies have achieved remarkable results with one trillion-cubic-meter gas field after another and one billion-ton-level oil field after another, providing solid reserve support for the continuous growth of China's oil and gas production and injecting strong impetus into optimizing the energy structure and achieving the "dual carbon" goals.