Oil is the largest energy source that is indispensable in the world today, and countries around the world are striving to extract oil.
However, there is such an oil field, because of the difficulty of exploitation, more than 30 countries choose to discourage, and the United States, which has highly developed mining technology, has said that it is powerless, and it has become an abandoned oil field.
However, China discovered the huge value behind it and directly spent 240 billion yuan to buy it out, but this operation attracted discussions from Western countries, ridiculing us as "wronged".
Unexpectedly, after the transformation, this oil field has become the second in the world, and the country that once laughed at us has become self-conscious, and even the United States regrets it.
So, how did this world-recognized treasure house achieve its perfect transformation, and why was it abandoned by the United States in the first place?
Kashagan Oilfield
In September 2013, when the Kashagan field was auctioned internationally, it was just a wasteland, and many countries did not look down on the field, although they had found traces of oil here, but they voluntarily abandoned it because of the high cost of extraction.
This made PetroChina take advantage of the loophole, and when everyone didn't care, the price of this oil field was almost pushed to the minimum, so China aimed at the opportunity and directly bought it for 240 billion.
On September 7, China successfully obtained the qualification to exploit the field, and then began recruiting a team of experts to conduct a detailed survey of the site.
In fact, as early as the 80s of the last century, the Soviets conducted an investigation here, but the geological structure here is relatively special, coupled with the old detection instruments of the Soviet Union, and there are not too many traces.
In the eyes of the international community, this is just a deserted sandy land, and even if there is oil, it is quite tricky to extract it later, not to mention that people at the time did not realize how exaggerated the abundance of oil resources here is.
Later, the Soviet Union went bankrupt and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe became independent, and in order to promote development, Kazakhstan decided to start the oil exploitation plan, but they did not have the high-end extraction equipment that could be used, so they had to turn to other countries for help.
At this time, Italy was also looking for strategic oil resources, and industrial development was inseparable from oil, so they signed a 40-year agreement with Kazakhstan to jointly exploit the oil and gas resources here.
In 2000, several Italian geologists arrived and discovered the huge oil field of Casagán, which at the time was estimated to contain 35 billion barrels of oil, the second largest in the world.
Such an astonishing discovery instantly attracted the attention of the international media, and with the continuous fermentation of public opinion, neighboring countries also focused on this oil field and hesitated to buy this oil field.
It didn't take long for a team of foreign experts to arrive here, and they brought the industry's top detection equipment, and after some exploration, they not only found a large oil field, but also found a natural treasure trove of natural gas reserves of up to one trillion cubic meters.
As soon as the news came out, the originally hesitant countries could not sit still, and the eyes of the world were focused on the Kashagan oil field, and an unprecedented battle for resources was about to begin.
During this period, the United States also planned to buy it at a high price, knowing that the United States has always regarded oil as its blood and is eager to put the oil of the whole earth into its own pocket.
Kazakhstan has a lot of ambitions, they know that this oil field is in demand, so they deliberately put it in their hands and do not sell it, this operation is undoubtedly to raise the market price, so that the oil field can be sold at a high price.
In the following years, geologists continued to visit Kazakhstan and found that the Kashagan oil field was not as perfect as they imagined, and it was very difficult to exploit.
In the years that followed, more and more evidence developed that the Kashagan field was unsuitable for large-scale exploitation, and over time, the West woke up from the war for resources and gradually forgot about the Kashagan field.
As a representative of capitalism, the United States naturally also had to consider the issue of exploitation costs, and after a long period of research, it finally withdrew from the price war, and the reputation of the Kashagan oil field deteriorated day by day, and the bidding price also plummeted.
From 2000 to 2012, the Kashagan oil field was in vain, but no country really exploited it, which also verified the conjecture of Western countries, first of all, the geological conditions are too restrictive.
In the map, we can clearly see that the Kashagan oil field is located in a desert area, the geological structure is complex, and the underground rock formation is very unstable.
According to international practice, oil extraction always requires a large amount of water resources, the reason is very simple, that is, by injecting water into the ground, the crude oil floats on the water surface, filters large impurities at the same time, and is also convenient for exploitation.
However, water resources are extremely scarce in desert areas, and if there is not enough water supply during the mining process, the entire mining process will become very difficult, or even impossible to continue.
For modern people, these problems can be solved, but it will undoubtedly add huge costs to oil extraction, and no one wants to do a loss-making business.
In addition, the desert ecology is already fragile, once the construction starts, the impact on the environment can not be ignored, and a large amount of waste water and waste gas generated during oilfield exploitation will cause serious damage to the local ecological environment.
Just like last year's discharge of nuclear sewage in Japan, although they saved the cost of treating the wastewater, they were morally condemned by the whole world, and some countries even banned the import of Japanese seafood, and the consequences are quite serious.
In this way, the Kashagan oil field fell into the hands of Kazakhstan.
But things soon took a turn for the worse, and in September 2013, China's leaders visited Kazakhstan for a multi-day state meeting.
The meeting set the tone for cooperation, and we bought the oil field, which also surprised the international community, after all, the oil field has been abandoned for 12 years and has long been a "waste oil field", so it has been ridiculed and vilified.
However, we did not pay attention to these external doubts, and scientific research experts divided the development of the oilfield into three stages, first of all, the establishment of the China-Kazakhstan oil transportation pipeline, which greatly saved transportation costs.
In the second phase of the project, the Kashagan field has reached 1 million barrels per day, and in the following years, the third phase has been completed, with 240 wells, more than 30 automated drilling centers, six technical operating units and gas transmission systems.
Now, the Chinese team of experts has overcome all kinds of difficulties to turn this "abandoned oil field" into a treasure trove recognized by the world, and the countries that once laughed at us have all shut up, and the United States has regretted it too late.
Text: Uncle Luo Ying
Edited by Uncle Luo Ying
Resources:
China Petroleum News reported that "the oil and gas production of the Kashagan project in Kazakhstan in which PetroChina is a shareholder hits an 8-year high".
Sina Finance's report on "the Kashagan oil field, which made 30 countries helpless, China spent 200 billion yuan to buy and exploit it".