Practice and understanding of developing new technologies and equipment for green and low-carbon production of oilfields

The core of China’s low-carbon development includes optimization of industrial structure, clean energy technologies, emission reduction technologies, and innovation of relevant systems and institutions. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has always been a proactive participant in developing low-carbon economy, shouldering the responsibilities of safeguarding oil and gas supply, conserving energy, and reducing emission. Therefore, CNPC fulfills those responsibilities as a substantial part of its overall strategy. Guided by low carbon and driven by innovation, petroleum corporations have taken constant innovation of low-carbon technologies, especially the development of green and low-carbon petroleum engineering technologies and equipment, as major measures for energy conservation and emission reduction. Large-scale development mode of unconventional resource anhydrous fracturing should be innovated. And supercritical CO2 should be used to replace water for fracturing operation, in order to achieve multiple objectives of CO2 burying, conserve water resource, improve single well production and ultimate recovery, realizing reduced emission and efficient utilization of CO2 resources. Artificial lifting energy-saving and efficiency-increasing technologies and injection-production technology in the same well should also be innovated. Energy consumption of high water-cut wells is reduced to support the new low-carbon operation mode of high water-cut oilfields and realize energy saving and efficiency improvement during oil production by developing the operation efficiency of the lifting system and reducing the ineffective lifting of formation water. These technologies have been widely recognized by local and international experts and have greatly enhanced CNPC’s international influence. This study expounds the key technologies and equipment with regard to the development of green and low-carbon petroleum engineering and provide relevant suggestions.