In 2025, both oil and gas reserves and production reached record highs.

The National Energy Administration recently announced the top ten landmark achievements in national oil and gas exploration and development for 2025. Relevant information indicates that the “Seven-Year Action Plan” to significantly boost oil and gas exploration and development has been successfully concluded, with both oil and gas reserves and production reaching all-time highs.

Data released by the National Energy Administration show that in 2025, domestic crude oil production reached 216 million tons, hitting a new historical high; natural gas production exceeded 260 billion cubic meters, with its equivalent surpassing 200 million tons for the first time. Crude oil production is advancing both onshore and offshore: veteran oilfields such as Daqing and Shengli are focusing on refined reservoir management and enhancing recovery rates, ensuring long-term, efficient, and stable production; shale oil output has surpassed 8.5 million tons. The Bohai Oilfield continues to rank first nationwide as the largest crude oil production base, accounting for over 60% of the nation’s total increase in offshore crude oil production. Natural gas production is following a strategy of developing both conventional and unconventional sources: production from the Ordos Basin, Sichuan Basin, and offshore areas is growing rapidly; the share of unconventional natural gas production has risen to 42%, laying the foundation for a strategic succession of natural gas resources.

From 2019 to 2025, the country’s cumulative newly discovered geological reserves of oil and natural gas exceeded 10 billion tons and 10 trillion cubic meters, respectively, thereby consolidating a solid foundation for sustained and stable production. Crude oil production has remained stable above 200 million tons for four consecutive years, and natural gas production has increased by more than 10 billion cubic meters for nine consecutive years, overachieving the targets set in the “Seven-Year Action Plan” aimed at significantly boosting oil and gas exploration and development efforts. As a result, China’s capacity for self-sufficiency in oil and gas has been further enhanced.

In 2025, the oil and gas exploration sector achieved several remarkable breakthroughs: The oil and gas production equivalent in the Ordos Basin exceeded 100 million tons, with crude oil output remaining stable at over 38 million tons for two consecutive years, and natural gas production nearing 80 billion cubic meters, further solidifying the energy foundation for the development of this super basin. In the Sichuan Basin, natural gas production surpassed 80 billion cubic meters, accounting for more than 40% of the nation's total increase; among this, shale gas production reached approximately 27 billion cubic meters, strongly supporting the construction of the Sichuan-Chongqing trillion-cubic-meter natural gas production base. Offshore crude oil production exceeded 66 million tons, and natural gas production reached about 30 billion cubic meters, bringing the oil and gas production equivalent to 90 million tons, thus highlighting the increasingly prominent role of offshore energy hubs.

The 10,000-meter-deep scientific exploration well has repeatedly broken records, and the “Deep Earth Engineering” initiative is advancing efficiently. By 2025, the oil and gas industry will have made significant progress in implementing the national strategy of “advancing into the deep interior of the Earth,” with the 10,000-meter-deep scientific exploration project achieving major breakthroughs. China National Petroleum Corporation successfully completed drilling of the Tako-1 well in the Tarim Basin, reaching a total depth of 10,910 meters and discovering oil and gas reserves at depths exceeding 10,000 meters for the first time. In the Sichuan Basin, the Chuanke-1 deep-well project is currently underway, with drilling already surpassing 10,000 meters and setting a new global record for the largest-diameter wellbore in a 10,000-meter-deep well. Xinjiang Huying Company is actively promoting the exploration and development of deep-layer resources, having deployed the Xin'an-1 risk exploration well in the Junggar Basin, which has now been completed at a depth exceeding 10,000 meters.

Source: China National Petroleum Corporation News Center