2023 Petroleum Exploration Industry Development Status and Competitive Landscape Analysis
Release Time:
2023-08-23
Petroleum exploration refers to the process of using various exploration methods to understand the underground geological conditions in order to search for and identify oil and gas resources. It involves understanding the conditions for oil generation, oil storage, oil and gas migration, accumulation, and preservation, comprehensively evaluating the prospects of oil and gas presence, determining favorable areas for oil and gas accumulation, locating oil and gas traps, delineating the area of oil and gas fields, and clarifying the conditions of oil and gas layers and their production capacity.
1. Overview of the Petroleum Exploration Industry
The petrochemical industry is a broad sector that involves extracting substances and chemical reactions from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas to produce various chemicals, fuels, and petroleum products. The range of products in the petrochemical industry is extensive, including but not limited to oil and natural gas processing, chemical manufacturing, refining, plastics processing, paint manufacturing, fertilizer production, synthetic fibers, and other chemical products.
Petroleum exploration refers to the process of using various exploration methods to understand the underground geological conditions in order to locate and identify oil and gas resources. This includes understanding the conditions for oil generation, storage, migration, accumulation, and preservation, comprehensively evaluating the oil and gas prospects, determining favorable areas for oil and gas accumulation, finding oil and gas traps, delineating the area of oil and gas fields, and clarifying the conditions and production capacity of oil and gas layers.
The upstream segment of the oil and gas industry chain is exploration and development, the midstream is trading and transportation, and the downstream includes refining, sales, and end consumers. The development of a new oil and gas well involves geophysical exploration, drilling, logging, well logging, cementing, perforation, and oil extraction. As the well ages, additional services such as well maintenance, enhanced recovery, and oilfield environmental protection are introduced.
The main exploration methods are divided into four categories: geological, geophysical, geochemical, and drilling methods. The geological method is the basic approach using geological data to find oil and gas fields. It includes surface geological observation and study; subsurface geological observation and study; laboratory measurements and research; and geological interpretation of aerial and satellite photos. The geochemical method is a new exploration technique based on organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and biochemistry theories, using advanced analytical instruments. It studies how organic matter transforms into oil and gas and the various chemical, physical-chemical, and biochemical interactions between oil and gas and surrounding media after formation. Using various indicators obtained from research, it evaluates the regional oil prospects and the oil and gas potential of local structures. The drilling method involves using drilling to find oil and gas fields. Drilling is an essential method in oil and gas exploration, used from investigation and discovery of oil and gas reservoirs to their exploitation.
2. Current Development Status and Competitive Landscape of the Petroleum Exploration Industry
The petrochemical industry is an important pillar of China's national economy, with a large economic scale and high industrial linkage. It is closely related to economic development, people's livelihoods, and national defense and military industry, holding a significant position in China's industrial economic system. In 2020, due to a decline in prices of related chemical products, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and low oil prices, large-scale enterprises in the petrochemical industry achieved operating revenue of 11.08 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7%, and a total profit of 515.55 billion yuan, down 13.5%. In 2021, the petrochemical industry showed strong supply and demand, with operating revenue and profits reaching record highs.
By the end of November 2021, the total global discovered oil and gas reserves in 2021 amounted to 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent, far less than the 12.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered in 2020. With no major discoveries announced in December, the oil industry is facing its most severe loss since 1946. However, for China, 2021 was a fruitful year with significant breakthroughs in oil and gas exploration—according to incomplete statistics, just 15 oil and gas fields in China added 5.393 billion tons of proven geological reserves.
According to the report released by the China Research and Puhua Industry Research Institute titled "2022-2027 China Petroleum Exploration Industry Market Competition Analysis and Supply-Demand Scale Forecast Research Report" it shows:
In the first nine months of 2022, China achieved a domestic crude oil production of 577 million barrels, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%; marketable natural gas production of 3.30 trillion cubic feet, up 5.1%; and oil and gas equivalent production of 1.126 billion barrels, up 3.9% year-on-year.
Drilling plays a very important role in various tasks of petroleum exploration and oilfield development, such as locating and confirming oil and gas structures, obtaining industrial oil flow, delineating the area and reserves of confirmed oil (gas) structures, acquiring geological and development data related to oilfields, and ultimately bringing oil from underground to the surface. All these are accomplished through drilling. Drilling is a crucial link in the exploration and extraction of petroleum and natural gas resources and an important method for oil exploration and development.
China has long attached great importance to oil and gas exploration and development work. The "14th Five-Year Plan" for a modern energy system officially issued in January 2022 proposes that by 2025, domestic crude oil annual production should rebound and stabilize at 200 million tons, and natural gas annual production should reach more than 230 billion cubic meters. The National Energy Administration held the 2022 annual meeting to vigorously promote oil and gas exploration and development, conducting further study and mobilization, and requiring the promotion of high-quality development of the oil and gas industry to a new level.
With the development of the oil and gas industry and the deepening of exploration and development, shallow oil and gas reservoirs have basically been discovered, and the overall quality of remaining oil and gas resources is relatively poor. It is difficult to increase reserves and production, so oil and gas exploration must extend from shallow and medium depths to deep and ultra-deep layers. Statistics show that in recent years, 60% of the world's new oil and gas reserves come from deep formations. Undoubtedly, onshore oil and gas resources provide a foundation for intensified exploration and development, but with continuous breakthroughs in offshore oil and gas exploration, nearshore areas have become a practical field for conventional oil and gas production growth. The value of offshore oil and gas resources in ensuring national energy security will become increasingly prominent.
Currently, several oilfield service companies with comprehensive competitive service capabilities and absolute advantages in certain segments, such as CNOOC Oilfield Services, Sinopec Oilfield Services, Jereh Group, Tongyuan Petroleum, and China Oil Engineering, have established presences in multiple international markets and are expected to further enhance their comprehensive service capabilities in the future. Coupled with the rising exploration and development demands of the domestic "Big Three Oil Companies," the oil and gas extraction service industry chain is expected to usher in a new cycle of prosperity. However, consumers currently tend to choose their own affiliated enterprises for industry brands.
With the continuous development of China's productivity, the demand for oil has been increasing, which in turn promotes oil extraction. Therefore, forecasting the future development trends of petroleum exploration and development technologies is beneficial to China's economic and productivity progress. Traditional petroleum exploration and development technologies have many shortcomings and perform poorly in complex terrains. Continuously innovating petroleum exploration and development technologies is an important task.
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