From December 7th to 8th, Zhongman Xinjiang Wensu Block successfully passed the oil and gas mining right holders’ exploration and exploitation inspection organized by the Oil and Gas Resources Strategic Research Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources. After the strict inspection, the expert group agreed that Zhongman Xinjiang Wensu Block is, currently, the only block that has invested the most work and realized the transition from exploration to production among the inspection blocks. ZPEC has set an example for private enterprises in oil and gas exploration and production, and provides certain experiences for the Ministry of Natural Resources to vigorously implement the bidding, auction, and listing of blocks.       

The inspection team is composed of 8 experts from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Sinopec, PetroChina, and other units. The whole inspection involves the deployment plan, engineering construction, safety and environmental protection, land acquisition, business finance, and other aspects. Affected by COVID 19, this inspection was conducted by online video conference combined with written inspection.

At the inspection video meeting, Zhongman Oil & Gas Company made a detailed report on eight aspects, including basic information on mining rights, preparation of exploration implementation plan, random inspection of physical workload, start of construction or project filing, reserves, etc.  At the meeting, the members of the expert group raised 11 questions to be discussed from eight aspects. ZPEC’s inspection team presented evidence one-by-one and answered relevant questions earnestly, which were unanimously affirmed by the expert group. The expert group believes that in the past five years, since obtaining the oil and gas exploration rights, ZPEC has given full play to the advantages of exploration, production, engineering, equipment manufacturing diversification and integration, completed 3D seismic exploration of 817km2, added 3011.00×104t proven oil geological reserves, while successfully discovering and exploiting the Wenbei Oilfield. By far, ZPEC has preliminarily established an annual production capacity of 50×104t of crude oil, and has achieved remarkable achievements of “breakthrough in one year, proven in two years, and production in three years”, which is very rare in the oil and gas industry in China.     

This round of oil and gas inspection by the Ministry of Natural Resources includes four blocks, the Wensu Block, the Keping South Block, the eastern part of the Keping North Area, and the Wensu West Block. The purpose is to conduct on-site inspection of the current situation of mining rights nationwide, focus on the actual scope of exploration and mining by the mining rights holders, find out the current situation and laws of the distribution of mining rights, timely correct the problems found in the inspection, update the registration database of exploration rights and mining rights, and greatly improve the management level of mining rights.

(Oilfield Department/Zhang Hong)