Status quo of natural gas exploration and development and technical demand for geophysical exploration in China

Since 2000,CNPC has explored and found more natural gas continuously in the Ordos basin,the Sichuan basin,the Tarim basin,the Songliao basin,the Qaidam basin,and the Bohai Bay basin,which has formed a reasonable layout of gas distribution in the east,the middle,and the west of China. The current issue is how to exploit more gas from the abundant resources reserves to meet the increasing energy demand for rapid Chinese economy. The main natural gas reservoirs are classified by three types of rocks,i.e.,clastic,carbonate and volcanic rocks. The clastic reservoirs are characterized by dense sandstone with low porosity and low permeability in the hills of Middle China and porous sandstone with complex high and steep structure in West China. Carbonate and volcanic reservoirs are commonly buried in deep strata with high heterogeneity and undescribable for seems and pores. According to different features on different reservoirs,corresponding geophysical technology should be adopted,detecting technology on clastic,carbonate and volcanic reservoirs should be optimized,and meanwhile some frontier technologies such as high-density and multiwave seismic exploration should be researched and developed thus to provide robust technical support for quantitative assessment and production capacity of natural gas.