{"id":4727,"date":"2025-11-15T20:25:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T20:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2025-11-15T20:25:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T20:25:51","slug":"revealing-earths-subsurface-chinas-technological-advancements-in-oil-gas-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/?p=4727","title":{"rendered":"Revealing Earth&#8217;s subsurface: China&#8217;s technological advancements in oil, gas exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Ding Yiting, People&#8217;s Daily<\/p>\n<p>Approximately\u00a070 percent of China&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepublicpurview.com\"><u>undiscovered oil and gas<\/u><\/a>\u00a0resources are located in ultra-deep formations, complex geological structures, and unconventional fields. Locating and accurately mapping these resources presents significant technical challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, People&#8217;s Daily visited BGP Inc., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), to explore\u00a0how advanced geophysical technology is driving breakthroughs in exploration.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_69705\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69705\" style=\"width: 864px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-69705\" src=\"https:\/\/chinaobserver.pk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1-1-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"648\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-69705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo shows a robotic dog of BGP Inc., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). (Photo from the WeChat official account of BGP Inc.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to Wen Jiamin, chief engineer at BGP Inc.&#8217;s geophysical research center, more than 95 percent of the world&#8217;s oil and gas reserves have been discovered through seismic exploration,\u00a0akin to\u00a0conducting a CT scan\u00a0of the Earth. Artificial seismic waves are generated to collect raw data, and the resulting data is processed into 3D imagery for geological analysis and identification of potential drilling sites.<\/p>\n<p>As exploration moves deeper underground,\u00a0conventional seismic techniques face limitations in penetration and signal clarity. To overcome these challenges, BGP Inc. has developed wide-frequency, wide-azimuth, and high-density data acquisition technology and equipment. These innovations function much like advanced photography, capturing clearer, more comprehensive subsurface images through broader frequency ranges, multi-angle coverage, and high-resolution sampling.<\/p>\n<p>This capability requires robust equipment. At BGP Inc.&#8217;s simulated acquisition site, 30-ton broadband seismic source vehicles, independently developed by the company, use five-ton vibrators to generate deep-penetrating low-frequency signals. These extend the effective detection depth from around 5,000 meters to over 10,000 meters.<\/p>\n<p>Ma Lei, a senior expert at BGP Inc., highlighted the development of\u00a0a new data acquisition system capable of recording up to\u00a0300,000\u00a0channels, up from 10,000, while increasing synchronization accuracy from milliseconds to microseconds.<\/p>\n<p>Once seismic data is collected, it must undergo extensive\u00a0processing\u00a0and interpretation. Transforming increasingly massive datasets,\u00a0often several\u00a0times larger than before,\u00a0into clear, actionable geological imagery\u00a0requires\u00a0advanced, large-scale\u00a0seismic processing and interpretation software.<\/p>\n<p>Historically, China relied on imported software for this critical task. In 2003, BGP Inc. Broke new ground by independently developing\u00a0China&#8217;s first large-scale integrated seismic data processing and interpretation software with proprietary intellectual property rights. In 2015, the company introduced an upgraded version, the world&#8217;s first five-dimensional data processing and interpretation software, offering significantly enhanced functionality. Today, it stands among the world&#8217;s three leading geophysical software systems.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, BGP Inc.&#8217;s research and development team has integrated AI into the software to enhance accuracy and efficiency. One notable advancement is in velocity spectrum picking, a crucial step in data interpretation. Previously requiring up to two months of manual work, the process can now be completed within days or weeks using AI-assisted automation, greatly accelerating turnaround while enhancing data quality, according to Geng Weifeng, head of the company&#8217;s\u00a0AI research unit.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_69704\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69704\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-69704\" src=\"https:\/\/chinaobserver.pk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-69704\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BGP Inc., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), uses a drone to collect data on hills. (Photo from Shiyou Zhenggong Yanjiu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Over the past five years, BGP Inc. has helped confirm domestic reserves of three trillion\u00a0cubic\u00a0meters\u00a0of natural gas zones and 500 million\u00a0tons of\u00a0oil. The company has also supported the successful siting and drilling of China&#8217;s two ultra-deep scientific exploration wells, each reaching depths of 10,000 meters. Internationally, BGP Inc. has delivered services to over 300 oil companies across more than 80 countries\u00a0and has ranked first in annual operating revenue within the global geophysical services sector\u00a0for several consecutive years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ding Yiting, People&#8217;s Daily Approximately\u00a070 percent of China&#8217;s undiscovered oil and gas\u00a0resources are located in ultra-deep formations, complex geological structures, and unconventional fields. Locating and accurately mapping these resources presents significant technical challenges. Recently, People&#8217;s Daily visited BGP Inc., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), to explore\u00a0how advanced geophysical technology is driving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4729,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions\/4729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytimes.net.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}