China Drills Deepest Well in Asia

^{Photo: Xinhua}
China has completed drilling the Shenditake-1 exploration well in the Taklamakan Desert, reaching a record depth in Asia of 10,910 meters.

The project began on May 30, 2023 and took almost two years to complete. It took 279 days to drill the first 10,000 meters, and more than 300 days to drill the final section, which is less than a kilometer deep. In the process, Chinese engineers traversed 12 geological layers using an automated drilling rig developed in China.

The well not only yielded the first rock samples from a depth of more than 10 km, but also made a sensational discovery: for the first time, traces of oil and gas were found at a depth of 10,851–10,910 meters. This opens up new opportunities for global hydrocarbon extraction.

This is the second deepest well in the world after the Kola Superwell (12,265 meters) drilled in Russia. Shenditake-1 has set several world records, including the deepest crustal cementation and the deepest geophysical survey using cable sensors. The project is said to be a major step in studying the Earth's interior and searching for new energy resources.