Daqing has another banner output year

Employees check equipment at Daqing Oilfield in Heilongjiang province in May. (JIANG NAN/FOR CHINA DAILY)

Daqing Oilfield in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province said it had produced 10 million metric tons of crude oil via tertiary oil recovery technology so far in 2024, marking the 23rd consecutive year that its annual tertiary oil recovery production had exceeded that level, according to Daqing Oilfield Co, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp.

So far, it has recorded nearly 320 million tons of tertiary oil recovery production in total since it launched such operations, making it the largest center globally for research in tertiary oil recovery and the largest site in the world using such technology.

Primary oil recovery relies on the natural pressure of the reservoir to produce oil while secondary oil recovery uses water to force oil to the surface and out of the derrick.

Tertiary oil recovery, also known as enhanced oil recovery, is the third stage of extracting oil from a petroleum reserve.

Through the injection of chemicals into the reservoir, the method can improve the interactions between oil, gas, water and rock, exploiting the oil that cannot be collected in the primary and secondary recovery stages.

Since the beginning of the year, the oilfield has focused on precise regulation throughout the entire production process.

"We have continuously deepened our mechanism research, optimized plan adjustments and refined production management," said Zhao Yunfei, Party secretary of the development department of Daqing Oilfield.

"The high-quality rate of the injection blocks has increased to 89.1 percent and the recovery rate is 1.1 percent higher than planned, strongly supporting the high-quality and stable production of crude oil in the oilfield."

Since the 1960s, Daqing Oilfield began to develop and apply tertiary oil recovery technologies independently.

It has shaped a series of increasingly mature technologies of oil extraction after 40 years of hard work and laborious exploration by its researchers.

"Relying on the continuous iteration and updating of efficient water flooding development technology, the oilfield has achieved a recovery rate exceeding 40 percent, which is more than 10 percent higher than similar oilfields," said Hou Zhaowei, an expert from the exploration and development research institute of Daqing Oilfield.

"Via the extensive application of tertiary oil recovery technology, the recovery rate has increased by 14 to 20 percent on the basis of secondary oil recovery technology, thus creating an internationally leading level of development for continental sandstone oilfields."

In addition to being applied at domestic oilfields, the core patents and proprietary technologies of Daqing Oilfield's tertiary oil recovery have been successfully used to provide technical services to some countries and regions, such as Russia and Kazakhstan.

It has led the global oil industry in enhanced oil recovery technology development, enhancing China's influence and voice in the international oil sector, the company said.