An E&P unit of China’s state energy giant PetroChina has drilled into high flows of natural gas and condensate in an exploration well in northwestern region Xinjiang in what could be another major onshore gas find.

In a social media posting Oct. 4, PetroChina’s Tarim unit said the Bozi-9 well in the Tarim Basin yielded a daily output of 418,200 cubic meters (cm) of natural gas and 115.15 cm of condensate in test production on Oct. 3. The find was made in a deep reservoir 8,000 meters (m) below the earth’s surface, it said.

On Oct. 3, official Xinhua News Agency separately reported that the oil- and gas-bearing zone around the well is estimated at 40.9 sq km in size, with a gas-bearing layer that is 178 m thick.

Citing an executive with PetroChina Tarim, Xinhua said the new find is estimated to hold 115.3 billion cubic meters (Bcm) of gas reserves and 21.66 million tonnes of condensate reserve.

The Tarim Basin currently has an annual production capacity of over 2 million tonnes of condensate and 10 Bcm of natural gas.

On Sept. 29, PetroChina announced that two large unconventional resource discoveries—shale gas blocks in southwestern Sichuan Basin and a tight oil field in the Ordos basin—have certified reserves as proven.

Onshore