China has begun drilling what will become one of the deepest wells in the world in the desert of western Xinjiang province. According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the narrow well will have an expected depth of 11,000 meters and will drill a dozen continental layers.
The company’s purpose is to study the internal structure and evolution of the Earth and to provide data for geoscientific research. This was stated by the China National Petroleum Corporation, which is leading the project.
It will take about 457 days for the drill head to reach 11,000 meters. Chinese media are already touting the project as a milestone in Chinese exploration of the Earth. In a 2021 congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping has already urged the country’s leading scientists to “break new frontiers” in several fields, including deep Earth exploration.
“It’s like a big truck passing over two steel cables,” scientist Sun Jinsheng of the Chinese Academy of Engineering told Xinghua news agency, summarizing the difficulty of the undertaking. The specially designed equipment, which weighs more than 2,000 tons, can withstand underground temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius and atmospheric pressure 1,300 times that of sea level.
Xinjiang
It is no coincidence that the enterprise takes place in the western province of Xinjiang. The region is known not only for the many concentration camps in which China holds an estimated one million Uyghurs, but also for its wealth of mineral resources and oil. Just last month, Sinopec, China’s largest refining company, detected significant flows of oil and gas at an exploration well in the Tarim Basin at a depth of more than 8,500 meters.
The Chinese well will not be the deepest, incidentally, that record is held by the Russians. The Kola Superdeep Borehole in northwestern Russia, at a depth of 12,262 feet, is the deepest man-made hole in the world.
Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
