The Tarim Basin, located in western China and southern Xinjiang, is the largest inland basin in China and the world. With an average altitude of around 1,000 meters, it is centered on the Taklamakan Desert, the second largest in the world with an area of 330,000 square kilometers.
At present, the Tarim Basin has proven oil and gas reserves of 17.8 billion tons, including 8 billion tons of oil, accounting for 1/6 of the country's land reserves, and is a huge supplementary reservoir of China's energy.
As the largest sedimentary basin in China, how rich are the natural resources of the Tarim Basin, and how vast is its potential for future development?
Oil and gas resources as reserves
The three mountains refer to the North Altai Mountains, the South Kunlun Mountains and the Middle Tianshan Mountains, and the two basins are the Tarim Basin and the North Junggar Basin. Among them, the Tarim Basin is located in the middle of the Tien Shan, Altun Mountain and Kunlun Mountain, with a length of 1,400 kilometers and a width of 520 kilometers, with a total area of 530,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of Thailand.
At the center of the basin is the Taklamakan Desert, the second largest mobile desert in the world. The environment here is harsh, the annual precipitation is only 100 mm, and even the entire basin is located inland, resulting in a dry climate, lack of water resources, and many deserts in the basin, resulting in extremely difficult living conditions in the entire basin.
However, although the environment of Tarim is harsh, it contains abundant and valuable natural resources, such as oil and gas.
Most of the world's oil and gas rich areas are concentrated in sedimentary basins, and the Tarim Basin is extremely rich in oil and gas resources.
Up to now, the basin has proven oil and gas reserves of up to 17.8 billion tons, of which 8 billion tons of oil, accounting for 1/6 of the country's total land reserves, and natural gas is as high as 10 trillion cubic meters, accounting for 1/4, but the detection rate of the Tarim Basin is still less than 5%, which shows how rich the resources hidden deep underground are.
The Tarim Oilfield has produced a total of 160 million tons of crude oil and 420 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Another example is the Bachu gas field, which is one of the largest natural gas fields in the Tarim Basin and is known as the dragon of western China. However, although the Tarim Basin is rich in oil and gas resources, there are also some natural limitations and technical problems.
Wells above 4,500 meters are called deep wells, and those above 6,000 meters are ultra-deep wells. The oil and gas resources of the Tarim Basin are buried deep underground, accounting for 83% of China's oil and 63% of natural gas above 6,000 meters. Extremely deep oil and gas resources have high requirements for exploitation technology and cost, the Middle East oil well is only 50 meters deep, the cost of exploitation is about 10 US dollars, and the cost of the Tarim Basin is 5 times that of it!
In addition, the basin is a complex structural area, with complex and diverse sedimentary conditions and geological structures, which can only be developed by advanced mining technologies such as high pressure and high temperature, horizontal wells, and shale gas.
It is precisely because of the technical difficulties and high costs that the degree of development of oil and gas resources in the Tarim Basin has always been very low. The basin's oil and gas resources are mainly used as strategic reserves, and its abundant development potential can make a significant contribution to the mainland's energy supply.
In 2022, the state issued an order to "march to the deep part of the earth" to the Tarim Oilfield, and the Tarim Oilfield has since begun to build a new stage of multi-dimensional open exploration system, with a number of 8,000-meter ultra-deep wells efficiently drilled, and the ultra-deep oil and gas exploration of the Tarim Oilfield, manned spaceflight, and lunar and fire exploration have become a major national strategy.
Thanks to the painstaking research and practice in the Tarim region, the mainland has made breakthroughs in exploration technology in ultra-deep and complex fields, and has mastered a series of key technologies. More than 300 oil and gas production equipment, including 9,000-meter drilling rigs and drilling and completion equipment, have been fully domestically produced, rapidly promoting the development and innovation process of domestic petroleum equipment.
In addition to oil and gas resources, the Tarim Basin is also rich in salt resources. The Tarim River contains a large number of potash deposits, and experts had predicted that the total amount of deep potassium resources in the Luobei area would be as high as 250 million tons. You must know that the mainland's potash, oil and gas, copper, aluminum, iron, manganese, chromium, and seven major resources have been in short supply for a long time, and the Tarim Basin has since become the hope of the mainland.
10,000 acres of fertile land to be developed
The Tarim Basin is located in the high-latitude warm zone, and the biggest climate is characterized by superior light and heat, which can allow crops in the region to enjoy more abundant light and growing season, which is very suitable for the planting of crops and has great prospects for agricultural development.
In addition, the Tarim Basin has vast land resources and diverse soil types, and the diversified soil types, including loess, sandy soil and saline-alkali soil, can meet the growth needs of different varieties of crops under reasonable management and improvement. Therefore, the only problem at present is the scarcity of water sources, so many scientists in China have proposed to "store water into Xinjiang" and transfer the water source from the southwest to the northwest.
The Brahmaputra River is located in the southwest and the Tarim Basin is located in the northwest, and the two main bodies of the water diversion project are geographically far apart. As an internationally renowned river, the Brahmaputra River passes through China, India and Bangladesh, with a length of 2,057 kilometers and an average flow of 165.4 billion cubic meters, making it the largest river on the Chinese plateau.
What we value is the abundant water source of the Brahmaputra River. The total annual flow of the Brahmaputra River is 1395×10^8 cubic meters, accounting for about 42.4% of the annual runoff of the Tibetan outflow system. Some water diversion on the basis of this amount of water will not cause adverse effects on itself.
However, the annual rainfall in the Tarim Basin is less than 100 mm, and the evaporation is very alarming, so experts proposed to draw 40×10^8 cubic meters of water from the Brahmaputra River to replenish it. This idea is theoretically feasible, and when these water sources reach the Tarim Basin, they can cover nearly one-quarter of the land area and form a huge lake of 150,000 square kilometers.
In 2021, Qinghai Lake covered an area of 4,625 square kilometers, which means that if the water is brought into Xinjiang, the area of the newly created lake will be 30 times that of Qinghai Lake. And these introduced water sources are all fresh water, which can be used to irrigate the basin directly. Moistened by new water sources, the Tarim Basin will be revitalized. If the 100,000 square kilometers of Gobi in the basin are transformed, the new fertile land can reach at least 150 million mu!
In fact, in recent years, the state has been attaching great importance to the agricultural development of the Tarim Basin, and has introduced a series of policies and measures to accelerate the process of agricultural modernization. Now, with the encouragement of the government, local farmers have joined agricultural cooperatives, and their production efficiency and income levels have been continuously improved, and the area of farmland is also expanding day by day.
Cotton cultivation is the pillar industry of the Tarim Basin, and the soil climate in the basin is very suitable for cotton growth, so the cotton produced in the basin is of excellent quality and yield. Every cotton harvest season, the cotton fields are shining with golden cotton, which is infinitely charming.
In addition, the Tarim Basin is also very suitable for the cultivation of wheat, corn and soybeans, which can meet the food needs of the local people. In addition, it also includes grapes, apples and other fruit and agricultural products, which have high nutritional value and are loved by consumers across the country.
Overall, the Tarim Basin is a treasure region with abundant oil and gas resources and unlimited agricultural potential. It is believed that through the development and support of the government in the future, the local agriculture can be further developed, making important contributions and practical guarantees to China's energy supply and food security!