On March 27^th, a six-member delegation, led by Dr. Wang Lei from SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Engineering Co., Ltd. and Dr. Yan Xiaopeng, Associate Professor at the School of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering of Changzhou University, visited ZPEC for a working exchange. The three parties conducted in-depth planning discussions regarding the research progress and key next steps for the project, “Research on Key Technologies and Equipment for Polar Oil and Gas Drilling”, a sub-task under the national key R & D program “Deep Sea and Polar Key Technologies and Equipment”. The meeting laid a solid foundation and provided strong assurance for the summarization of research outcomes and the final acceptance review of the national special project.

In the meeting, two topics, including “Polar Drilling Environmental Protection and Waste Treatment Technology” and “Safe and Efficient Polar Drilling Technology and Its Application”, were systematically discussed. The project was established in December 2022 with a four-year implementation period, led by SINOPEC and nine participating companies. It aims to establish a safe and efficient polar drilling process, centered on permafrost wellbore and wellhead stability control technology, anti-freezing and environmentally friendly drilling fluids, a low-temperature, early-strength, low-exothermic cement mud system, optimized design of shallow wellbore structures in polar regions, and adaptability evaluation of casing drilling and low-temperature string verification technology. Thus, a series of safe, environmentally sound and efficient polar drilling technologies were developed, providing theoretical and technical support for the leapfrog development of China’s polar oil and gas resource exploration technology. For this project, ZPEC is mainly responsible for applying the project outcomes in the Arctic polar or cold regions.

With more than three years’ systematic scientific research breakthroughs, the project team has preliminarily developed a series of technologies for safe, environmentally friendly and efficient polar drilling technologies, including polar drilling shallow geological disaster risk identification and control technology, permafrost drilling wellbore temperature control technology, polar drilling environmental protection and waste control technology, low temperature drilling, critical equipment design and development technology, and safe and efficient polar drilling process and its application technology. Meanwhile, expected achievement has been made in polar drilling field practices.      

Furthermore, the three parties engaged in in-depth discussions on topics such as the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, the launch of mature products, support for R&D projects, the integration of industry, academia, research and application, technical exchanges and cooperation, and technological award applications. Several cooperation agreements were reached. Li Huifeng, General Manager of ZPEC Drilling Company, along with more than ten leaders, experts, and key technical staff from ZPEC Oil Drilling Services, attended the discussion meeting.

(Technical R & D Center;/Text by Yan Zhenlai; Photos by Yu Yongzhen)