【State-owned enterprises overseas】Facing the “Gate of Hell”!

Thread Content

This post was last edited by lovelife1997 on 2019-4-5 at 16:51. Despite having the fourth-largest natural gas reserves in the world, complex geological conditions characterized by high temperatures, high pressures, and high sulfur content, along with the harsh climate of heat and drought in the desert, as well as immature extraction technologies, pose significant challenges to the exploration and development of natural gas in Turkmenistan. After a decade, what was once the “Gate to Hell” is transforming into a “land of happiness”. As energy cooperation between China and Turkey reached an unprecedented new level, the \"Gate of Friendship\" began to see people from both countries coming and going through it. The off-road vehicle raced across the vast Karakum Desert, just as it encountered the sun setting in the west. Chasing after the red and huge sun, running non-stop until it slowly sank below the horizon; the vast clouds of fire faded away, and the earth instantly grew dark. Suddenly, a ball of fire appeared in the depths of the dark desert, like the sun that had just appeared on the horizon. Yellow flames burst forth from the giant fire pit, reaching a height of nearly 10 meters. The hissing of the flames and the boiling of groundwater in the pit seemed to be trying to awaken the earth that was on the verge of falling asleep. This is a gas well drilled by Turkmenistan itself (Well Pir-5); an accident occurred at the wellhead, resulting in a gas leak. On April 19, 2009, thunder and lightning ignited the natural gas beneath it. ”Rei Huibo, assistant to the general manager of Amu Darya Gas Company, explained. Turkmenistan began drilling well Pir-5 in 1996; after gas testing in 1999, the well was sealed. In 2006, damage to the casing was discovered, resulting in a large amount of water and natural gas leaking from within the casing. The measures taken by Turkmenistan were unsuccessful, and gas continued to escape from the well. By 2009, a lightning strike directly ignited Well Pir-5, and it has been burning ever since without extinguishing. The Bible describes hell as a lake of fire that cannot be extinguished, filled with sulfur and flames. Therefore, Well Pir-5 is jokingly referred to as Turkmenistan’s second “Gate of Hell”. It is estimated that since 2009, Well Pir-5 has consumed approximately 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas. In 1971, the first \"Gate to Hell\" appeared in the central part of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. At that time, Soviet geologists discovered that this area contained large amounts of underground natural gas. During extraction, an accidental ring-shaped collapse during drilling resulted in the formation of a very large pit. To prevent toxic gases from escaping, geologists set fire to the natural gas in the pit; it was originally expected that the gas would be burned up within a few days, but to this day, the pit continues to burn all year round. A massive flame about 70 meters wide formed a golden halo, burning up from beneath the ground, like a gate leading to another terrifying world. It is reported that this “Gate to Hell” has become a new tourist attraction in Turkmenistan. In Turkmenistan, there are far more gas wells with similar blowouts than just these two. Well Pir-7 – In 2002, a blowout occurred due to damage to the blowout preventer; subsequently, a fire destroyed the drilling rig and the well was rendered unusable ； Well Div-1 – In 2006, overflow and wellbore gushing were encountered during drilling, resulting in a water pool with a radius of 50 meters forming around the wellhead; the drilling rig sank into this pool. To this day, gas and water continue to emerge from this well. Previously, there were seven or eight wells that caught fire during drilling in the contract area on the right bank of the Amu Darya River. Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of natural gas reserves, behind Iran, Russia, and Qatar. 80% of the country’s territory contains natural gas, and the abundance of underground gas reserves is unimaginable. According to statistics, in 2016, Turkmenistan’s proven natural gas reserves were 17.5 trillion cubic meters, while the prospective reserves were 22.8 trillion cubic meters. Gong Liefu, who once served as China’s ambassador to Turkmenistan, recalled to the media the \"miracle\" he witnessed upon arriving there: even in ordinary Turkmen households, the natural gas stoves were left on, even when no cooking was being done. It turned out that at that time in Turkmenistan, natural gas was free, while matches had to be purchased at a cost; to save money on matches, people preferred to use natural gas instead. During the Soviet era, the oil and gas extraction technologies as well as the export channels in Turkmenistan were under Soviet control. Before 1997, Turkmenistan had only one gas pipeline leading to Russia for exporting natural gas. Since then, Turkmenistan has built a natural gas export pipeline to Iran, with an annual gas transport capacity of only 8 billion cubic meters; yet this still does not address the issue of Turkmenistan’s reliance on a single route for its gas exports. Mining technology is even more troublesome. The complex geological conditions of high temperature, high pressure, and high sulfur content, along with the harsh desert climate of high temperature and drought, as well as immature extraction technologies, pose significant challenges to the exploration and development of natural gas in this area. Taking the gas field on the right bank of the Amu Darya River as an example, exploration in this area began in the late 1950s. By the time CNPC signed the natural gas cooperation project for the right bank of the Amu Darya River in 2007, a total of 211 wells had been drilled there; the geological failure rate was 36.5%, the engineering failure rate was 33.6%, and the success rate of drilling was only 29.9%. Another set of data illustrates this point as well: the annual natural gas production in the United States is 687.6 billion cubic meters, making it the highest in the world. Meanwhile, due to constraints such as development technologies and export channels, Turkmenistan’s annual production is only 62.3 billion cubic meters, placing it 13th in the world. Zhao Fuxing, director of the Petroleum Bureau under the former Ministry of Geology and Mining, said that a blowout is a drilling accident with both human factors and objective factors. The specific reasons include inaccurate prediction of formation pressure, inadequate safety measures during drilling, and mismatch between well control equipment and formation pressure. A blowout occurs when things get out of control; for example, in well Pir-5, the quality of the cement surrounding the well was not good enough, and gas escaped from those weak areas. Preventing blowout accidents is of utmost importance for the safe exploitation of gas fields, and it places high demands on extraction technologies. In fact, Turkmenistan also struggled hard in the face of \"Gate to Hell,\" and Chinese oil gave them confidence. To handle natural gas well blowouts, the usual approach is to seal the wellhead, that is, by injecting sealing materials into the wellhead to prevent the gases beneath from escaping. The total reserve of Well Pir-5 is approximately 2 billion cubic meters, which is equivalent to the reserve of a small gas field in China, with a daily production capacity of up to 500,000 cubic meters. Amu Darya Gas Company organized a fire-fighting team to attempt to extinguish the fire at Well Pir-5 using water cannons. But with a natural gas production rate of 500,000 cubic meters per day, the flame height reached over 30 meters; the 4 water cannons could discharge hundreds of cubic meters of water per minute. But firing a water cannon at it is simply like pouring a drop in the ocean. After considering economic and technical feasibility, experts from Turkmenistan and China decided to allow it to continue burning, in order to prevent the accumulation of large amounts of gas from leading to an explosion. Meanwhile, Amu Darya Gas Company drilled four production wells in a radius of 5 to 10 kilometers around Well Pir-5, in order to achieve rapid extraction and prevent waste of underground resources. In fact, China National Petroleum’s ability to make breakthroughs and ultimately succeed in entering the Turkmenistan market is largely attributed to its subsidiary, Sichuan Qinghua Drilling. The general manager of CNPC’s Chuqing Drilling subsidiary in Turkmenistan said that in 2006, at the invitation of the Turkmen side, CNPC successfully carried out fire suppression work at Well Osman 3, which acted as a catalyst for CNPC’s entry into Turkmenistan. “The Turkmen side truly witnessed CNPC’s technical capabilities in this area, which strengthened their confidence and determination to cooperate with CNPC.” On October 28, 2006, at Well Osman 3 in the heart of the Karakum Desert, after 814 days of drilling and having reached a depth of 4,577 meters, a severe blowout occurred followed by a fire. The gases released contained sulfur at a level nearly a thousand times higher than what is tolerable for humans; the flames reached a height of over 60 meters, and no one could approach within 200 meters of the wellhead. A few days later, on November 1, 2006, Turkmenistan’s **General Geological Company urgently sought assistance from CNPC’s office in Turkmenistan. After the American company withdrew from the site on the grounds that it did not have the conditions to extinguish the fire, CNPC brought the \"fire dragon\" under control within just over 50 days. Thanks to its advanced technical capabilities, CNPC has become the leader for Chinese companies entering Turkmenistan. Data shows that since 2007, CNPC has drilled a total of 160 wells in Turkmenistan’s two major gas fields, Bagtyr and Revival; 159 of these wells were completed, with a total drilling depth of over 600,000 meters. The success rate of these drilling operations was 100%, enabling CNPC to gain control over the drilling activities in Turkmenistan’s \"three-high\" gas fields – those characterized by high pressure, high temperature, and high H2S levels. The project on the right bank of the Amu Darya River is currently China National Petroleum Corporation’s largest natural gas project overseas. Under the terms of the natural gas purchase and sale agreement, approximately 13 billion cubic meters of gas are supplied to China each year via the Central Asian Gas Pipeline and the West-East Gas Transmission Line 2. Meanwhile, as the operator of the Amu Darya project, CNPC completed the construction of the first natural gas processing plant in 18 months and the second one in 20 months, achieving a total processing capacity of 17 billion cubic meters per year – thus setting the \"CNPC speed\" standard. On December 14, 2009, the heads of state of China, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan attended the ceremony marking the commissioning of Phase 1 of the project on the right bank of the Amu Darya River. Turkmenistan’s President Berdimuhamedov described this project as a \"model of Turkmenistan’s openness and cooperation with other countries,\" and praised CNPC as \"heroic builders.\" During the EU Energy Charter Conference in March 2015, the EU Deputy President said to the Head of Turkmenistan’s Oil and Gas Agency: \"CNPC has accomplished in Turkmenistan what Western oil companies could not achieve.\" In 2007, after signing a cooperation agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation for the natural gas project on the right bank of the Amu Darya River, Turkmenistan’s President Berdimuhamedov named this desert area in the contract zone “Bagtyr”, which means “land of happiness” in Chinese. After 10 years of effort, “Gate of Hell” finally turned into a “land of happiness”. In the words of Sun Weidong, China’s ambassador to Turkmenistan, \"CNPC has paved the way for Chinese companies to enter Turkmenistan, helped build their image there, and played a leading role.\" At present, Turkmenistan has established an effective supply structure in which the Bagtyyarlyk and Mary-Uchakyn regions supply gas to China simultaneously, with an annual gas supply capacity of over 40 billion cubic meters, making it the main source of supply for the AB/C gas pipelines in Central Asia. By the end of July 2017, Turkmenistan had supplied China with more than 177 billion cubic meters of gas in total (a figure that exceeds China’s annual natural gas production for 2016; this amount accounted for over 95% of China’s pipeline gas imports during that period). The energy value of this gas is equivalent to 235 million tons of standard coal, and it led to a reduction in CO2, SO2, and dust emissions by 283 million tons, 5.49 million tons, and 2.35 million tons respectively. Over the past three years, during the cold winter months, there have been repeated instances of significant gas leaks, and even complete interruptions in gas supply, along the Central Asian gas pipeline. However, given China’s gas shortage, only Turkmenistan supplies more than 120 million cubic meters of natural gas per day (twice the amount in summer), ranking first among all domestic gas supply networks in terms of daily output. As China’s energy consumption structure continues to adjust, market gas demand will rise further. It is reported that another large gas pipeline for transporting Turkmenistan’s natural gas to China, the Central Asia Gas Pipeline Line D, is also under development. Once completed, the gas transmission capacity will also continue to increase. Currently, energy cooperation between China and Turkmenistan has reached an unprecedented level; the \"Gate of Hell\" no longer exists in Turkmenistan, while the \"Gate of Friendship\" continues to see people from both countries passing through it.