The National Energy Administration releases the top ten landmark achievements in national oil and gas exploration and development for 2025.

Top Ten Landmark Achievements in National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development in 2025

The "Seven-Year Action Plan" to Vigorously Enhance Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Successfully Concluded, with Both Reserves and Production Reaching Historic Highs

In 2025, domestic crude oil production reached 216 million tons, setting a new historical record; natural gas production exceeded 260 billion cubic meters, with its equivalent surpassing 200 million tons for the first time. Crude oil production advanced both offshore and onshore: old oilfields such as Daqing and Shengli focused on refined reservoir management and enhanced recovery rates, achieving long-term efficient and stable production, with shale oil output exceeding 8.5 million tons; the Bohai Oilfield remained the largest crude oil production base in the country, with offshore crude oil production accounting for over 60% of the national increment. Natural gas production saw "conventional and unconventional simultaneous development": the Ordos Basin, Sichuan Basin, and offshore natural gas production grew rapidly; unconventional natural gas production increased to 42%, forming a strategic replacement for natural gas resources.

From 2019 to 2025, the cumulative newly proven geological reserves of oil and gas nationwide exceeded 10 billion tons and 10 trillion cubic meters, respectively, consolidating the foundation for sustained stable and increased production; crude oil production remained stable at over 200 million tons for four consecutive years, while natural gas production increased by over 10 billion cubic meters for nine consecutive years, exceeding the targets of the "Seven-Year Action Plan" to vigorously enhance oil and gas exploration and development. This further strengthened domestic oil and gas self-sufficiency capabilities.

Ordos Basin Achieves Sustained Production Growth, Establishing China’s First 100-Million-Ton Oil and Gas Production Base

In 2025, the oil and gas production equivalent in the Ordos Basin exceeded 100 million tons, with crude oil production stabilizing at 38 million tons for two consecutive years and natural gas production nearing 80 billion cubic meters, further solidifying the oil and gas foundation for building an energy super basin. PetroChina’s Chang 8 and Chang 6 tight oil reservoirs in the Huanjiang area added 80.4 million tons of newly proven geological oil reserves, equivalent to discovering a new medium-sized oilfield; the Chang 7 tight oil evaluation resources in blocks such as Binchang, Fuxian, and western Mahuangshan in southern Ordos exceeded 100 million tons, with continuous large-scale reserve increases in the Xunyi exploration area. Breakthroughs were made in the exploration of Upper Paleozoic coal-measure gas (deep coalbed methane), with nearly 500 billion cubic meters of newly proven geological reserves in areas such as Mizhi-Shenmu, Jiaxian, Sanjiaobei, Daji, Yichuan, and Linxing, bringing the cumulative proven geological reserves close to one trillion cubic meters, laying the foundation for scaled production growth. Oil and gas production continued to stabilize and increase: PetroChina’s Changqing Oilfield saw cumulative shale oil production exceed 20 million tons; Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum maintained stable and increased crude oil production of over 10 million tons. PetroChina’s Sulige Gasfield maintained an output of 30 billion cubic meters for four consecutive years; PetroChina’s Daji Gasfield accelerated coal-measure gas (deep coalbed methane) capacity building, with daily production exceeding 10 million cubic meters, opening a new front for unconventional natural gas reserve increases and production growth; Sinopec’s Daniudi and Dongsheng Gasfields collectively maintained stable production of 5 billion cubic meters for five consecutive years; CNOOC’s Zhonglian Company achieved unconventional gas production of over 3 billion cubic meters; Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum completed a 15 billion cubic meter capacity doubling project, with its natural gas production increment accounting for half of the Ordos Basin’s total in 2025.

Sichuan Basin Achieves Rapid Natural Gas Production Growth, Supporting the Construction of a 100-Billion-Cubic-Meter Base

In 2025, natural gas production in the Sichuan Basin exceeded 80 billion cubic meters, with its increment accounting for over 40% of the national total. Shale gas production reached approximately 27 billion cubic meters, strongly promoting the construction of the Sichuan-Chongqing 100-billion-cubic-meter natural gas production base. PetroChina’s Southwest Oil & Gas Field established the first 50-billion-cubic-meter gas region in southwestern China, forming the country’s first trillion-cubic-meter deep shale gas reserve area. Both conventional Permian gas in central Sichuan and unconventional gas achieved large-scale and efficient reserve increases, with unconventional natural gas production accounting for 42%, marking a strategic transition from "conventional gas dominance" to "conventional and unconventional synergistic development." Sinopec discovered the country’s first Permian shale gas large field, with continuous breakthroughs in the resource evaluation of ultra-deep Cambrian shale gas in southern Sichuan. The Puguang and Yuanba marine high-sulfur gasfields in northeastern Sichuan collectively maintained stable production of over 10 billion cubic meters for nine consecutive years, while shale gas production remained stable at 10 billion cubic meters for five consecutive years.

Significant Achievements in Offshore Oil and Gas Reserve and Production Growth: Total Output Reaches 90 Million Tons of Oil Equivalent

In 2025, China's offshore crude oil output exceeded 66 million tons, and natural gas output reached approximately 30 billion cubic meters, bringing the total oil and gas production to 90 million tons of oil equivalent. The role of offshore energy bastions is becoming increasingly prominent, serving as a vital force in advancing the development of a strong maritime nation and energy powerhouse.

Exploration. In the Bohai Sea, three medium-to-large oil fields were discovered in the shallow lithology play: Qinhuangdao 29-6, Longkou 25-1, and Caofeidian 22-3. Among these, the Qinhuangdao 29-6 Oilfield has accumulated proven reserves on a hundred-million-ton scale, and Longkou 25-1 is the largest conventional oilfield discovered nationwide in terms of annual reserve size. In the deep to ultra-deep play, the Bozhong 8-3 South Gasfield, the first Mesozoic volcanic gas field in the Bohai Sea, was discovered. In the offshore waters of the South China Sea, the Lufeng 13-8 Oilfield, the first deep-seated medium-to-large lithologic oilfield in the South China Sea, was discovered in the Pearl River Mouth Basin.

Development. Major projects such as "Deep Sea No.1" Phase II and the Liuhua Oilfield redevelopment were fully completed and put into operation. The Bohai Oilfield, China's largest offshore oilfield, saw its annual oil and gas production exceed 40 million tons of oil equivalent for the first time. In 2025, the cumulative production of the "Deep Sea No.1" Gasfield surpassed 5 billion cubic meters. The oil and gas production of the gas field cluster around Hainan Island exceeded 10 million tons of oil equivalent, doubling compared to the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

National-level Shale Oil Demonstration Zones Fully Completed, Shale Oil Revolution Reaches New Heights

In 2025, three national-level continental shale oil demonstration zones—Jimusar in Xinjiang, Gulong in Daqing, and Jiyang in Shengli—were fully completed. Leveraging breakthroughs in core technologies, shale oil production capacity is accelerating, sustaining rapid output growth and supporting China's crude oil production to reach historic highs. The Jimusar Demonstration Zone in Xinjiang has developed over 30 core technologies, including "golden target identification" and "wide-area support fracturing," employing multiple measures to enhance construction efficiency and achieving an annual output of 1.7 million tons. The Gulong Demonstration Zone in Daqing has developed foundational theories such as "in-situ enrichment of continental shale oil," continuously expanding reserves in the Qingshankou Formation. Cumulative proven geological reserves exceed 300 million tons, with annual production surpassing 1 million tons. The Jiyang Demonstration Zone in Shengli innovatively proposed the "reservoir-fracture-pressure" ternary storage-permeability theory for continental faulted basin shale oil. Multilayer, three-dimensional differential development has progressed from "technology validation" to "large-scale production," with cumulative single-well shale oil production repeatedly setting records and annual output reaching 700,000 tons.

Ten-Thousand-Meter Deep Earth Scientific Exploration Wells Break Records Repeatedly; "Deep Earth Project" Advanced Efficiently

In 2025, the oil and gas industry, implementing the national strategy of "advancing into the deep Earth," achieved significant progress in the 10,000-meter deep Earth scientific exploration project. PetroChina's Shendi Take-1 Well in the Tarim Basin was successfully completed at a depth of 10,910 meters, marking the first discovery of oil and gas at 10,000-meter depths. In the Sichuan Basin, the Shendi Chuanke-1 Well, currently drilled beyond 10,000 meters, set a global record for the largest diameter wellbore at 10,000-meter depth. Xinjiang Huying Company actively advanced deep resource exploration and development, deploying the risk exploration well Xin'an-1 in the Junggar Basin, with a completed drilling depth exceeding 10,000 meters.

The Tarim Basin, as the main battlefield for the "Deep Earth Project," continues to yield new exploration and development successes. PetroChina's Tarim Oilfield achieved high gas flow from the Keshen 20 Well deployed in the Kuqa piedmont belt. Exploration evaluation of eight gas reservoirs, including Keshen 31 and Bozi 13, led to reserve additions on a hundred-billion-cubic-meter scale. The oil and gas production of the Fuman Oilfield exceeded 4.6 million tons of oil equivalent for the first time, and the Bozi-Dabei Gas Field's annual output surpassed 10 billion cubic meters for the first time. Sinopec's Northwest Oilfield opened up a new exploration domain—fault-controlled domes beneath the weathered crust of the Tahe Oilfield. The deepened Sha 114-2 Well tested at over 100 tons per day, accelerating the strategic vision of "moving beyond the fault zone." Development of the Shunbei ultra-deep oil and gas field expanded from volatile oil reservoirs to condensate gas reservoirs, achieving an output of 3.24 million tons of oil equivalent in 2025.

Iterative Upgrading of Oil and Gas Engineering Technology and Equipment Accelerates Shift Toward High-End Solutions

Leveraging a full-chain portfolio of core technologies and equipment in geophysical exploration, drilling, fracturing, and extraction benchmarked against international frontiers, China's petroleum industry is continuously advancing toward high-end solutions and significantly improving operational efficiency. PetroChina independently developed the EV80, China’s first 80,000-pound wide-band, high-precision vibroseis, which can still detect effective seismic reflection signals at depths of 12,000 meters, effectively solving challenges in ultra-deep oil and gas exploration such as weak signals, low signal-to-noise ratio, and imaging difficulties. It also upgraded the country’s first 15,000-meter ultra-deep well automatic drilling rig and innovatively applied formation testing and reservoir stimulation technologies at 10,000-meter depths. Sinopec independently developed the Idrilling 1.0 scientific drilling system, enabling intelligent collaboration across the entire drilling process; upgraded high-temperature-resistant (245°C) high-load hybrid bits and long-life screw drills (215°C); and broke foreign monopolies on high-temperature drilling tools and bits. CNOOC completed construction of its first integrated electric-drive fracturing vessel, the Haiyang Shiyou 696, whose performance parameters lead the world; and independently developed a 3,000-meter depth umbilical fiber-optic connector (CFT), elevating its engineering technology to among the global top three.

CNOOC's "Deep Sea No. 1" Establishes Benchmark as a Leading Smart Factory

CNOOC's Hainan Branch has vigorously promoted the digital and intelligent transformation of the "Deep Sea No.1" Gasfield, creating a full-process twin-optimized production site. In 2025, it was selected for the first national "Leading-level Smart Factory" cultivation list, becoming a model practice of digital and intelligent transformation in China's deepwater oil and gas sector. Based on the "Deep Sea Cloud Roam" integrated platform combined with digital twins and artificial intelligence algorithms, CNOOC has developed a data-driven intelligent control system for the entire oil and gas production process. It systematically constructed 28 intelligent application modules covering the entire lifecycle of "construction-design-production-management," helping "Deep Sea No.1" become the world's first 1,500-meter deepwater semi-submersible production and storage platform capable of remote remote control production. This system enables "Deep Sea No.1" to increase natural gas production by 60 million cubic meters annually, reduce energy consumption per unit of output value by 40%, and increase production efficiency by 3%. The on-site workforce per million tons of oil equivalent is 28 people, a reduction of over 50% compared to similar gas fields, providing a replicable practice paradigm for lean operation and intelligent upgrading of deepwater gas fields.

Sinopec Shengli Oilfield Innovates New Model for Comprehensive Clean Thermal Energy Utilization

Sinopec Shengli Oilfield, based on the concept of "building a geothermal field within an oilfield," innovatively constructed the first "source-storage-use-link" clean thermal energy system in China's domestic oil and gas sector. Adhering to simultaneous exploration, evaluation, and extraction of oil and heat, it has developed industrial applications for low-cost conversion of abandoned wells into geothermal wells for heat extraction and reinjection, as well as development models and technical standards for simultaneous oil and heat production through enhanced fluid temperature in oil wells. A smart clean thermal energy management platform was deployed, with a total of 51 projects completed, providing a clean heating capacity of 3.46 million GJ/year and saving 100 million cubic meters of natural gas annually. This achieves "multi-source supply, single-source multi-use, storage-use adaptation, and oilfield-region interconnection," providing a "Shengli Model" for the integrated multi-energy development of geothermal energy in mature oilfields.

PetroChina Jilin Oilfield's "Honggang Model" Charts New Path for Green Transformation of Mature Oilfields

PetroChina's Jilin Oilfield has successfully developed the "Honggang Model." Through the integrated application of technologies including "new energy substitution for cost reduction + smart management and control for efficiency enhancement + multi-energy complementarity for stable production," pilot applications were implemented in multiple blocks in 2025, with the Honggang Da 27 Unit as a demonstration. This resulted in a 3.5-fold increase in annual oil production and the release of 27 million tons of low-grade resource reserves overall. Jilin Oilfield is vigorously promoting the "Honggang Model," achieving a terminal energy electrification rate of 35%, with self-generated green power accounting for over 30% of exploration and production consumption. It has achieved historic breakthroughs, including zero coal consumption and a 17% clean energy substitution rate, significantly reducing the Oilfield's total energy consumption and carbon emissions. This has resolved the predicament of resource depletion and declining profitability in mature oilfields, creating a replicable paradigm for the integrated development of oil and gas exploration and production with new energy sources.