The annual output of the Daqing Gulong continental shale oil national demonstration zone in northeast China has exceeded the million-ton mark for the first time, marking a success in tackling extraction challenges and reshaping the production chain through green innovation, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said on Friday.
Located on the northern part of the Songliao Basin within Daqing City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the Gulong continental shale oil national demonstration zone covers 2,778 square kilometers, designed to have 500 horizontal wells.
As a "testing ground" for China's continental shale oil development, the Daqing Gulong national demonstration zone has achieved leapfrog growth in just a few years, scaling up from an initial output of 15,000 tons in 2021 to surpassing the 1-million-ton target in 2025.
Behind this surge in production lies not only technological breakthroughs across the entire development chain, but also the key to this traditional energy base's transition toward green and low-carbon development.
Shale, named for its thin, leaf-like or laminated structure resembling layered pages of a book, is the rock formation that houses shale oil resources.
At the shale oil transfer and processing site of the Daqing Oilfield Gas Production Branch Company, oil produced from over 2,000 meters underground undergoes initial separation.
Unlike traditional black crude, Gulong shale oil is golden in color and characterized by light oil quality, low density, and few impurities.
While the extraction technology for Daqing Gulong shale oil is complex, the oil produced holds outstanding economic value.
These premium qualities allow shale oil to proceed directly to refining without complex pretreatment, making it an ideal raw material for producing high-value-added products like polyester fiber, high-end plastics, aviation kerosene, and premium gasoline.
"Daqing Gulong shale oil is buried at great depths, making extraction extremely challenging. However, the quality of the produced oil is excellent, with a high light-fraction content. During the refining process, it yields less residual oil and boosts refining efficiency by 15 percent to 20 percent, significantly increasing the added value of the products," said Chen Gang, deputy party secretary of Daqing Oilfield Gas Production Branch Company of the CNPC.
Green extraction technology is the key to turning its superior advantages into tangible value.
In the core development stage of fracturing, the demonstration zone has innovatively applied new carbon dioxide (CO2) fracturing fluids and oil displacement technologies.
Simply put, CO2 collected from industrial processes is purified, liquefied, and injected underground. This approach both utilizes industrial carbon emissions and promotes crude oil extraction.
"Carbon dioxide (CO2) can be more easily injected into the nanoscale pore spaces in shale. Its rapid expansion, pressurization, and cooling can generate numerous micro-fractures in the shale, allowing the trapped crude oil to be fully released. Additionally, CO2 also replenishes reservoir energy and improves oil fluidity, thereby further enhancing recovery rates," said Cui Baowen, technical advisor of Daqing Oilfield.
The green concept extends not only beyond the oil extraction process but also to the energy supply itself.
The demonstration zone has built a new energy microgrid that integrates wind, solar, natural gas, and energy storage systems.
Through intelligent dispatch, it achieves multi-energy complementarity, providing low-cost clean energy for key processes like drilling and fracturing, with significant emission reduction results.
"Our shale oil operations have generated a cumulative 3.178 million kWh of green electricity. Nearly 60 percent of key processes now use electricity or natural gas to replace oil in cleaner operations. We have cumulatively sequestered 511,400 tons of CO2 and obtained a carbon footprint certificate, truly achieving a 'win-win outcome for development and environmental protection'," said Chen Lin, executive deputy commander of the shale oil exploration and development headquarters of Daqing Oilfield.
From technological breakthroughs that overcome extraction challenges to green innovations that reshapes the production chain, the development practice of Daqing Gulong shale oil has not only provided a replicable "Daqing Solution" for the scaled development of China's continental shale oil, but also marks a solid step forward for this traditional energy base on the path toward low-carbon transformation.