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Increasing oil and gas reserves and production is a strategic choice to ensure national energy security, and it is also a key support for achieving the "dual carbon" goal. The 2022 work promotion meeting to vigorously enhance oil and gas exploration and development organized by the National Energy Administration clearly pointed out that the increase in oil and gas reserves and production has achieved important stage results, and it is necessary to unswervingly promote the implementation of the action plan and implementation plan. Breakthroughs, steady growth of crude oil, rapid increase in natural gas production, vigorously promote shale oil and shale gas to become strategic continuous fields, firm the development direction of unconventional oil and gas, and accelerate the development of unconventional resources.

At present, my country's oil and gas production has been rising steadily. Onshore oil and gas production has continued to stabilize and increase production, offshore oil and gas exploration and development has advanced to deep water, and unconventional oil and gas achievements have blossomed. The increase in oil and gas reserves and production has reached a new level.

So, how to keep the oil and gas strategic safety bottom line and plan a realistic strategy for increasing reserves and production? The reporter recently learned from the "First Energy Development Strategy High-end Forum and Energy Development Strategy Professional Committee Inaugural Meeting" hosted by the China Petroleum Exploration and Development Research Institute that from the perspective of resource conditions, my country's oil and gas reserves and production still have great potential in the future. The production and economics of regulated natural gas are expected to continue to improve.

Use technology to drive benefits

"Technological progress is one of the most active and critical factors in the development of the upstream business of the oil and gas industry, and achieving stable production and increasing production will also be highly dependent on technological breakthroughs," said Zhao Wenzhi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

It is understood that my country's oil companies have accelerated technological research in recent years, solved many world problems, and held the red line of 200 million tons of oil and gas.

According to public information, in 2021, my country's crude oil production will be 198.976 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%; natural gas production will be 205.26 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%. As the main force in my country's onshore oil and gas exploration and development, PetroChina's oil and gas production in 2021 will exceed 210 million tons, crude oil production will continue to grow for three years, natural gas production will exceed 100 million tons, and Sinopec's oil and gas production will be about 479.67 million barrels of oil. equivalent.

While onshore oil and gas production continues to increase steadily, my country's oil and gas resources development is gradually moving towards deep water and ultra-deep water, and production has grown steadily. In addition, as an important strategic replacement for my country's conventional oil and gas resources, the development of unconventional oil and gas resources has achieved multiple blooms. In 2021, my country's shale oil output will be 2.4 million tons, shale gas output will be 23 billion cubic meters, and coalbed methane utilization will be 7.7 billion cubic meters.

It is worth noting that while oil and gas exploration and development have made achievements, a new round of oil and gas technology revolution in my country is poised to take off. Super basins are leading the re-emergence of old oil fields. Unconventional resources are effectively replacing conventional resources. Deepwater and ultra-deepwater will become the future offshore important exploration areas. Experts participating in the above forums all said that it is particularly important to develop a new generation of exploration and development theory and technology with an international leading level, support the development of the oil and gas industry, and ensure national oil and gas energy security.

It is understood that at present, China's petroleum industry has formed an advanced and complete theoretical technology research and development and equipment manufacturing system, which supports the continuous and stable production and increase of oil and gas production. The future is a critical period for oil and gas development, and will inevitably face major challenges and new technological demands. A number of academicians who attended the meeting said that the rapid development of a new generation of engineering technologies that can greatly improve the scale and efficiency of exploration and development, promote the deeper and farther expansion of oil and gas field exploration and development, as well as digital transformation and cross-border integration, is a new engine for the transformation and development of the oil and gas industry.

Seek benefits from "potential stocks"

Zhao Wenzhi said that to ensure the safety of my country's oil and gas supply, in the traditional field, it is possible to stabilize oil and increase gas through both land and sea, and to pay equal attention to the extraordinary. It can also be achieved through the implementation of major national oil and gas special projects, and through technological and institutional innovations to seek benefits from "potential stocks" , to find new blocks and new "battlefields", and strive to achieve the goal of 200 million tons of crude oil and 250 billion cubic meters of natural gas peak production.

"You can choose 15 to 20 new areas for large-scale exploration in the land and sea areas, organize key theoretical and technological breakthroughs, increase investment in exploration, and actively prepare for new breakthroughs in exploration and new battlefields for oil and gas. The scientific and technological breakthrough in the large-scale development and utilization of grade resources has made a large number of marginal ineffective resources a resource guarantee for increasing reserves and production.” Zhao Wenzhi said, “In particular, we must rely on new technologies such as AI and big data to improve oil recovery in old oilfields. great article."

Zhao Wenzhi said that making good use of new fields of oil and gas resources can also achieve large-scale growth in oil and gas production.

"On the one hand, we can organize the continental shale oil revolution, set up a number of pilot development test areas for medium and low-maturity shale oil, break through the industrial production barrier in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and increase production on a large scale in the 15th Five-Year Plan, and strive to achieve it around 2040. The output of low-mature shale oil will increase in scale. Organize a revolution in the thermal conversion of oil-rich coal, focus on the 'oil-rich coal' in the central and western regions, carry out the integrated utilization of pyrolysis oil and gas extraction and power generation, and realize large-scale industrial production during the 14th Five-Year Plan." Zhao Wenzhi said, "At the same time, focus on 'abandoned' resources beyond the industrial coal mining threshold, and carry out the utilization of underground coal gasification. In the 14th Five-Year Plan, we will strive to break through the industrial production threshold and form large-scale production in 2040."

Increase the proportion of overseas resources

A number of industry experts said that under the background of generally insufficient investment in international oil and gas exploration, it is not easy for my country to achieve continuous breakthroughs in increasing oil and gas reserves and production.

Dou Lirong, Secretary of the Party Committee of the China Petroleum Exploration and Development Research Institute, pointed out that to increase upstream investment and "add a contribution" to stabilizing and increasing production, domestic oil and gas companies also need to increase overseas exploration and development efforts. "Taking ExxonMobil as an example, its overseas crude oil exploration and development production accounts for 69.29% of its total production, and its overseas natural gas exploration and development production accounts for 71% of its total natural gas production. The domestic 'three barrels of oil' overseas crude oil production accounts for 40% of the total production. In addition to CNOOC accounting for 66.06% of natural gas, PetroChina and Sinopec only account for about 20%.”

"In the future, we can work hard to cultivate and consolidate 5-8 core production areas. We also need to pay attention to the development opportunities of oil and gas and new energy integration, and at the same time establish a national-level risk fund." Dou Lirong said, "When overseas oil and gas cooperation encounters risks and causes losses, The state gives certain compensation to oil companies to form a risk guarantee mechanism for overseas oil cooperation. In addition, it provides government, inter-regional and international organizations exploration and development cooperation funds to carry out global oil and gas resource evaluation research.”

Dou Lirong said that compared with the century-old history of multinational exploration and development of international oil and gas companies, we have just started. "At present, the overseas investment environment is more complex and changeable. We need to carry out international oil and gas and new energy cooperation with more countries and in a wider range of fields to obtain more resources and ensure national energy security."