China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has received official certification for the 30.55-billion-cubic-meter proven geological reserve of natural gas discovered in phase-I of its Bazhong gas field, a significant breakthrough of Sinopec's Project Deep Earth-Sichuan and Chongqing natural gas base that further reveals favorable potential of the tight sandstone in northeast Sichuan, China.

The Bazhong gas field is the third Xujiahe Formation tight sandstone gas field discovered by Sinopec in the region. As of now, Sinopec has submitted a total of 154,747 million cubic meters of proven geological reserves of tight sandstone gas in the region.

The sandstone gas reserve with a burial depth of over 4,500 meters is defined as an ultra-deep, tight sandstone gas reservoir, and the burial depth of the Bazhong gas field ranges from 4,550 to 5,225 meters, which is a challenge for exploration and development. Sinopec has innovated three types of high-quality reservoir and permeability development models to clarify natural gas enrichment and high-yield production models, established reservoir prediction technique sequences, and implemented enriched high-yield zones.

Next, Sinopec will continue to tackle the geological evaluation and engineering process of the tight sandstone shale gas reserves in the Sichuan Basin to expand the scale of reserves in the Bazhong region.