Driller Di Fajun stared at the changes in the parameters on the instrument in front of him, holding a joystick in each hand, shaking slightly, the joystick of hundreds of tons of special drilling rigs in his hand was as light as an arm, and the majestic power of the "steel beast" would take half a minute to reach nearly 10,000 meters deep underground.
It is expected to be able to drill 10,000 meters during the day today. Di Fajun said. In the early morning of the 4th, China's first 10,000-meter deep earth exploration well, Deep Taco 1 Well, ushered in the critical moment of "sprinting" 10,000 meters underground.
The deep Taco 1 well (drone**) photographed in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang on March 3 was taken by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xiang.
In the early spring of the desert, the Taklamakan Desert is still cold and windy, and the more than 20-storey drilling rig stands steadily in the long yellow sand, and the nearly 10-kilometer-long drill pipe is rotating underground. After about 280 days of fierce battles in the sand and seas, hundreds of oil workers and scientific and technological workers are looking forward to their special moment.
At 10:15, the on-site command center of the well site showed that the real-time depth came to 9,990 meters, and there were still 10 meters left before breaking 10,000. From the driller's room to the command center, from the living base to the drilling site, everyone is concerned about real-time depth changes.
In the deep underground, as the drill bit goes deeper and deeper, the rock layer breaks down little by little, and the rock debris is continuously transported up through the mud cycle. Next to the derrick, the jagged drill bits and rock cuttings from the ground are quietly displayed not far from each other.
On March 3, scientists studied cuttings taken from deep underground at Well Deepground Taco 1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xiang.
Researchers analyze cuttings of different colors to determine the stratum in which the drill bit is located and make subsequent construction decisions. "The rich geological information carried by rock chips also plays an important role in the study of earth evolution and climate change. Yang Guo, project manager of the Basic Research Department of PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Exploration and Development Research Institute, said.
It is not easy to drill through the formation and remove the cuttings. Over the past hundreds of millions of years, the Taklamakan Desert has been shattered by tectonic plate movements, and the difficulty of drilling increases with each meter of depth after the drill bit breaks through the sand layer.
Drilled into 10,000 meters underground, the formation temperature exceeded 200 degrees Celsius, and the formation pressure exceeded 130 megapascals. The temperature is comparable to boiling hot oil, and the pressure is like 'eight 10-ton elephants standing on a fingernail'. Lv Xiaogang, director of the basin exploration project department of the Tarim Oilfield Exploration Division, said that the harsh working conditions have brought great challenges to the stability of drilling tools.
The introduction of the drill bit replaced on site shows that when the well depth ranged from 1,545 meters to 4,100 meters, only one drill bit was used, and the footage reached more than 2,500 meters, while when the well depth reached 9,600 to 9,700 meters, one drill bit could only drill less than 100 meters. As the drilling depth increases, the bit wears out more and more, and the difficulty of drilling increases.
At 14:08, the drilling depth has come to 99985 meters, breaking 10,000 meters, the drilling team specially tied a safflower to the upper part of the drill pipe that is about to break through 10,000 meters. "It's very exciting, but I have to make sure that I drill steadily and that I get the job done with high quality. "Driller He Jiantao has just completed **, and the joystick of the world's first 12,000-meter ultra-deep well automatic drilling rig has been handed over to him.
On March 3, the driller drove a drilling rig in the deep Taco 1 well. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xiang.
Time passed minute by minute, the wind of the desert in early spring blew more urgently, and anticipation and nervousness spread among everyone. As the first site of drilling construction, there is only the roar of the machine and the command sound in the walkie-talkie in the driller's room.
At 14:48, the depth number on the screen instantly jumped to 10,00000 (m), cheers resounded through the well area. In this ancient and lonely sand sea, a new record for Chinese exploration of the deep land was born! This not only means that China's ultra-deep oil and gas exploration has officially entered the era of 10,000 meters, but also another feat of exploring nature in the deep field.
At the same time, underground, the "wrestling" between diamond drill bits and hard rock layers continues, and the strata deposited for hundreds of millions of years are like "blind boxes", which are constantly being opened - this is a breakthrough in energy exploration and an attempt by human beings to explore the unknown.
*:Xinhua.