China’s Largest Desert Oilfield Tops 26 Million Tonnes of Ultra-Deep Output

The significance here is less the accumulated volume than the demonstrated depth capability: sustained output below 6,000 metres and coring past 8,000 metres mark China's ultra-deep exploration as an operating discipline rather than an experiment. That matters for PetroChina's domestic supply narrative and for the service and equipment chain that supports Tarim Basin work. Whether the deeper coring translates into reserves booked at comparable depths is the open question, and the geological data from those 500-million-year-old cores is what the next round of assessments will hinge on.