The Support of Petroleum Engineering Technologies in Trends in Oil and Gas Exploration and Development-Case Study on Oil and Gas Exploration in Sinopec

During the 12th "Five-Year Plan", great breakthroughs in oil and gas exploration were made in Sinopec and technological innovative developments in seismic exploration, ultra-deep well drilling and completion, horizontal well staged fracturing, mud logging and well logging provided crucial support. Nevertheless, some technical challenges will be encountered in oil and gas exploration in the future. For example, it is hard to find new oil reserves for strategic replacement, the quality of new reserves is degraded, and burial depths increase while the geological complexity of exploration targets requires a higher engineering technical requirement. Sinopec has committed to oil and gas exploration that will mainly target seven kind of reserves including continental subtle reservoirs, marine reservoirs, tight clastic reservoirs, piedmont reservoirs, igneous reservoirs, sea and unconventional oil and gas resources (shale gas). This paper presents a analysis of the main technical challenges in these seven types of reservoirs and identifies the major technical research directions in geophysical exploration, borehole stability, mud logging and well logging.