China’s deepest oil well set to break through 10,000-meter depth mark

Beijing: China’s first scientific exploration well with a depth of over 10,000 meters in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is about to break through the 10,000-meter depth mark.

The drilling of the well, Shendi Take-1, has already reached 9,850 meters according to the latest reports on Sunday and new set of drill bits are installed for further digging.

The scientific exploration wells are designed to explore the evolution of Earth, the origin of life, climate change, disaster prevention and resource utilization. Compared to a regular oil well, the scientific exploration well is to explore the unknown territory that no one has explored before.

The digging challenges went exponentially when the depth went deeper. According to the project staff, 26 drill bits have been used to drill this well by far, of which 14 drill bits have been used for a distance of about 1,800 meters below 8,000 meters underground, compared to 12 drill bits for the initial 8,000 meters. It said a lot about the difficulties in ultra-deep drilling which could shorten the lifespan of a drill bit from 2,000 meters to 140 meters.