HAIKOU /China/, April 9. /China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Sinopec has drilled PRC's deepest exploration well called the Fushenre-1 Well in the southern province of Hainan with a well depth of 5,200 meters, according to a report published on the company's website.
The extraction of geothermal resources in China is mainly carried out at a depth of about 3 km, the document stated. Thus, the country has achieved a new breakthrough, which will increase the scale of their development in the region.
With Fushenre-1, Sinopec plans to conduct more detailed studies, and will also establish "the first demonstration platform in South China," which will bring together the expertise of the company and universities specializing in geothermal drilling at great depths. This is expected to help the PRC successfully meet the challenges of achieving carbon neutrality.
According to the corporation, drilling of 250-million-year-old granite rock in the Fushenre-1 Well began in August 2023. For this purpose, Sinopec "applied a number of innovative technologies of its own development".
The China Geological Survey (CGS) estimates that geothermal resources of dry hot rocks at a depth of 3 to 10 km in the country are equivalent to 856 trillion tons of standard coal. According to official calculations, even if only 2% of this amount could be extracted from the subsoil, the obtained resources would allow to provide energy production that would exceed its consumption in China 2.99 thousand times in the past year.