Xinjiang Oilfield Drills Record-Breaking Continental Shale Oil Well at Jimsar National Demonstration Zone

According to China News Service, drilling work on well JHW91-13 at the Jimsar National Continental Shale Oil Demonstration Zone under Xinjiang Oilfield reached full completion on 6 July. The well’s total measured depth hits 5,501 metres with a vertical depth of 4,031 metres, finished within just 7.75 days. The milestone sets a new domestic record for the shortest drilling cycle among continental shale oil wells of equivalent depth, matching the leading international efficiency benchmarks for comparable shale oil drilling operations.

This technical leap comes from concentrated research on domestic proprietary technologies and joint collaborative efforts between the operator and contracted service teams. The streamlined high-efficiency drilling workflow delivers replicable and scalable operational blueprints to support large-scale, cost-effective development of continental shale oil resources nationwide.

The Jimsar block hosts a typical hard-to-produce continental shale oil formation across China. Pay zones holding viable crude measure merely 1.8 metres in thickness, paired with extreme reservoir heterogeneity that demands ultra-precise well trajectory control. Interleaved mudstone strata create fragmented underground rock structures, introducing persistent instability risks for downhole drilling assemblies during construction.

Technical teams have integrated high-precision seismic imaging, intelligent fault prediction and other cutting-edge digital exploration tools to build a four-dimensional precise regulation framework combining logging-while-drilling, comprehensive mud logging, mineral logging and matched engineering support systems. The integrated platform enables accurate, rapid penetration through complex stratigraphy and lifts consistent hit ratios for target pay zones. Construction crews adopt differentiated operational protocols tailored to distinct drilling intervals to tier geological risk prevention and mitigation. High-inhibition drilling fluid deployed in the initial drill section eliminates borehole shrinkage triggered by shallow mudstone layers. High-performance oil-based drilling fluid serves the second drill run, with dynamically adjusted construction parameters to suppress sidewall collapse and circulation loss in fractured rock, forming robust safeguards for stable downhole operations.

Continuous iterative upgrades to integrated geological and engineering technologies form the core workstream for Xinjiang Oilfield’s ongoing development plans. Optimised drilling techniques proven on single test wells will roll out across the full demonstration block to drive comprehensive efficiency gains and cost reduction across all development platforms.

Domestic research institutions and oilfield operators will extend the four-in-one intelligent drilling control architecture to further continental shale oil blocks distributed across inland sedimentary basins. Standardised differentiated interval management protocols will be compiled into universal industry guidance documents, supporting consistent high-speed drilling performance amid the complex geological conditions unique to China’s continental shale deposits. New generations of fully domestic intelligent drilling hardware and real-time formation monitoring systems will undergo field trials within the Jimsar zone to shorten construction cycles across subsequent batches of horizontal development wells.