# Fengcheng Oil and Gas Field
**Fengcheng Oil and Gas Field** (风城油田) is a shallow, ultra-heavy-oil field in Urho District, Karamay, on the northwestern margin of the [Junggar Basin](https://www.edgepedia.org/junggar-basin) in Xinjiang, China, operated by PetroChina's Xinjiang Oilfield Company. It holds about 370 million tons of proven super-heavy oil at burial depths of 180 to 450 m, with crude viscosity above 1,000,000 mPa·s at 20 °C, and it is China's largest shallow, integrated super-heavy-oil development base.[1](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/) • [2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml) In 2014 it became the largest uncompartmentalized ultra-heavy oilfield in China, with oil production of 2.237 million tons that year.[3](https://csr.cnpc.com.cn/cnpccsr/xhtml/PageAssets/2014csr_en.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Urho District, Karamay, northwestern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang; operated by PetroChina Xinjiang Oilfield Company[4](https://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2014-12/29/content_1515819.htm) |
| Reserves and depth | About 370 million tons of proven super-heavy oil; burial depth 180–450 m; viscosity above 1,000,000 mPa·s at 20 °C[1](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/) |
| Crude type | Naphthenic crude, a category that makes up 2.2% of the world's proven oil reserves and yields 75 types of high-end chemical products[3](https://csr.cnpc.com.cn/cnpccsr/xhtml/PageAssets/2014csr_en.pdf) |
| Production scale | 2.237 million tons in 2014, the largest uncompartmentalized ultra-heavy oilfield in China; above 2.6 million tons in 2025[3](https://csr.cnpc.com.cn/cnpccsr/xhtml/PageAssets/2014csr_en.pdf) • [2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml) |
| Main method | Dual-horizontal-well SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage); 278 producing well pairs, 108 of them in three-dimensional configurations[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) |
| Reservoir challenge | Vertical-to-horizontal permeability ratio below 0.1, far below the roughly 0.8 normally required for efficient SAGD in Alberta[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) |
| Recent results | Field deployment across 109 well pairs raised oil rates 20–40%, added 10–15 percentage points of recovery, cut startup time about 50%, and lowered steam consumption about 40%[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) |
## Location and resource
The field lies in the Gobi desert of the Junggar Basin's northwestern margin. Its Jurassic ultra-heavy oil reservoirs were deposited in proximal braided-river systems at depths of 170 to 700 m, and Fengcheng alone accounts for roughly 0.25 billion9 tons (about 1.8 billion barrels), one of China's largest single ultra-heavy accumulations.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) A 2013 exploration round added nearly 50 million tons of new proved reserves in the field's Jurassic Zhong 18 block.[6](https://www.chinanews.com/ny/2014/02-08/5813434.shtml)
The crude is a naphthenic oil of extreme viscosity. At 20 °C it exceeds 1,000,000 mPa·s, and the highest measured viscosity reaches 10 million mPa·s, twice the maximum of 5 million mPa·s found in Canada's ultra-heavy oils; oil of that consistency is hard like frozen meat at room temperature.[1](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/) • [4](https://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2014-12/29/content_1515819.htm) Naphthenic crude is valued as feedstock for specialty lubricants, transformer oil, and refrigeration oils.[7](https://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2013-04/08/content_1223136.htm)
## Early assessment
The super-heavy oil was discovered as early as 1958, but in the mid-twentieth century this nearly solid oil could not be produced, and [Wood Mackenzie](https://www.edgepedia.org/wood-mackenzie) dates the heavy oil field's discovery to late 1981.[8](https://www.sohu.com/a/441288597_158724) • [9](https://www.woodmac.com/reports/upstream-oil-and-gas-fengcheng-14269646/) In the fifteen years after the early 1990s, three international companies, a Canadian firm, Total, and Chevron, each evaluated the block and concluded it was uneconomic, listing it as a "forbidden zone" for development.[8](https://www.sohu.com/a/441288597_158724) Xinjiang Oilfield Company began its own research push in the 1980s, and the Chinese-language energy press credits Karamay's engineers with solving a world-class production problem to make large-scale development possible.[4](https://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2014-12/29/content_1515819.htm)
## SAGD development
SAGD, in which steam injected from an upper horizontal well melts oil that drains by gravity to a lower producer, was applied in a first pilot launched in 2008 in Blocks Z32 and Z37, demonstrating commercial viability in the more favorable Type-II reservoirs; full-scale operations followed in 2012.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) A second pilot targeting the poorer Type-III reservoirs began in Block Z45 in 2013, and cumulative SAGD output surpassed one million tons by 2017.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) By July 2018, 172 well pairs had injected a cumulative 24 million tons of steam and produced 3.7 million tons of oil at an oil-steam ratio of 0.156, with a recovery factor of 12.7% and field output of 2,560 t/d.[1](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/)
Average production per well pair was 20 to 30 t/d, low by Canadian standards, and the reasons are geological: Fengcheng's reservoirs are terrestrial sediments with many faults, narrow channel sands, and high vertical heterogeneity, unlike Canada's marine and estuarine deposits; horizontal sections are 300 to 400 m against 700 to 900 m in most Canadian projects; and thermal conductivity of the rock is below 1.0 W/(m·°C).[1](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/) Predicted peak rates using Butler's model come to 20–40% of McMurray Formation well pairs when actual horizontal lengths are used.[1](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/)
## Reservoir quality and flow barriers
Reservoir quality deteriorates sharply between the two producing facies. Net pay thins from roughly 30 m in Type-II sands to roughly 12 m in Type-III pay, mean permeability declines from 2.5 D to 0.7 D, and at 50 °C the crude's viscosity climbs tenfold, from around 20,000 to around 200,000 mPa·s; maximum per-well-pair oil rates in Type-III intervals drop to about a third of what Type-II zones achieve, and the oil-steam ratios are cut in half.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) Fengcheng's Type-II reservoirs sit near the lower limit of commercial SAGD feasibility by Canadian benchmarks, and Type-III sands hold only one-quarter to one-third of the horizontal permeability of Canadian analogs.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0)
Shale interlayers are the main barrier to steam-chamber growth. Lithologic interlayers of mudstone, silty mudstone, and calcareous sandstone have porosity of 1.8–6.0% and permeability of 0.5–10 mD, while petrophysical interlayers of silty sandstone run 15.8–18.0% porosity and 100–120 mD; interlayer thickness ranges from 0.4 to 6.8 m, averaging 1.3 m.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) With these barriers included, the field's vertical-to-horizontal permeability ratio falls below 0.1, far under the roughly 0.8 normally required for efficient SAGD in Alberta.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) Field studies classified interlayers into three types by whether steam can break through them, and three countermeasure technologies, vertical-well-assisted SAGD, double-layer tridimensional well pattern SAGD, and fish-bone steam injector SAGD, were applied with notable field results.[10](https://syzcgysj.xml-journal.net/article/doi/10.13639/j.odpt.2020.02.018?viewType=HTML) [Simulation](https://www.edgepedia.org/simulation) of fishbone multilateral wells in the field identified an optimal deployment of 120 m laterals, four per well, at 75° with 100 m spacing.[11](https://opaj.napstic.cn/periodicalArticle/0120240402961500)
## Technology upgrades and the second production rise
By 2020 the traditional production model was failing: steam-stimulation wells had averaged more than 15 huff-and-puff cycles, oil-steam ratios were falling, and annual output had dropped below 2 million tons between 2016 and 2020.[2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml) From 2021 the field pursued a second production rise through three measures. First, 156 drive-drainage well groups were converted from cyclic steam stimulation, raising recovery by 15 percentage points, with group oil rates up 1.5 to 4.2 t/d and the best groups above 45% recovery.[2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml) Second, SAGD late-stage operation was re-tuned with low-pressure, low-liquid-level, low-subcool control policies plus intermittent steam re-heating and periodic nitrogen injection.[2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml) Third, a 2021 concept called huff-and-puff chamber expansion runs multiple inject-soak-produce cycles before SAGD starts, unlocking Type-III reservoirs; by March 2025 it had been applied to 60 well groups over 300 well-times, with an expected 80,000 t of added oil in 2025, and it has revitalized 15 million tons of previously stranded reserves.[12](https://center.cnpc.com.cn/bk/system/2025/03/27/030159581.shtml) • [2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml)
The integrated well-pattern and geomechanical-dilation workflow has since been applied to 109 well pairs. Three optimized 3-D well layouts and two multilateral variants bypass interbeds, while staged high-pressure dilation propagates shear dilation 10 to 15 m to breach barriers; the Fengcheng oil sands are weak and unconsolidated, with unconfined compressive strength below 2 MPa and [Young's modulus](https://www.edgepedia.org/youngs-modulus) of 0.6 to 0.9 GPa, which makes this dilation feasible.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) • [13](https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7160729/v1_covered_22c7f4e1-20d0-4bde-aeec-9b4fd49d865f.pdf?c=1753691054) Industrial SAGD now totals 278 producing well pairs, 108 in the new 3-D configurations, lifting annual output to about 1.2 Mt of oil previously considered uneconomic; the dual-layer staggered pattern alone raised the recovery factor from 56.7% to 68.4%.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0) After 2021, annual output stayed above 2 million tons, and in 2025 it exceeded 2.6 million tons with an SEC reserve replacement ratio of 1.34.[2](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml) Cumulative heavy-oil production surpassed 15 million tons by 2025.[14](https://trxf.cnpc.com.cn/content/subject_edu/content_41303.shtml)
## Energy supply and emissions
Steam generation dominates the field's energy use. A coal-fired circulating fluidized bed boiler developed for Fengcheng burns saline produced water as feedwater, achieving boiler efficiency above 90%, steam superheat up to 30 K, and reuse of wastewater that would otherwise require disposal; in field comparison, coal-fired boilers delivered higher SAGD oil yield (8.7 versus 6.8 t/d) and shorter preheating (122 versus 158 days) than gas-fired units.[15](https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/CN/10.1007/s11708-020-0690-3) To cut fossil fuel use, the field commissioned China's first tower-type high-temperature solar steam project on September 12, 2025: 23,712 heliostats focus sunlight onto a 113 m receiver tower, producing 305 °C superheated steam at 53% overall solar-to-thermal efficiency, with annual steam output of 52,000 tons replacing 3.92 million cubic meters of natural gas.[16](https://trxf.cnpc.com.cn/content/h/content_41511.shtml) The 3-D well patterns and dilation workflow also lower cumulative steam-to-oil ratios, trimming natural-gas demand and CO2 emissions.[5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0)
## References
1. [A General Review on Status of Heavy Oil Development in China, Canadian Heavy Oil Association](https://old.choa.ab.ca/a-general-review-on-status-of-heavy-oil-development-in-china/)
2. ["开发禁区"何以二次上产？, 中国石油新闻中心 (2026-07-17)](https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2026/07/17/030198125.shtml)
3. [CNPC 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Case Study: Large-scale Development of Ultra Heavy Oil in Fengcheng Oilfield](https://csr.cnpc.com.cn/cnpccsr/xhtml/PageAssets/2014csr_en.pdf)
4. [风城油田实现超稠油规模化开发, 中国能源报 (2014-12-29)](https://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2014-12/29/content_1515819.htm)
5. [Decarbonizing SAGD in heterogeneous ultra-heavy-oil reservoirs, Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology (2025)](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-025-02126-0)
6. [新疆油田新增探明储量1.2亿吨, 中国新闻网 (2014-02-08)](https://www.chinanews.com/ny/2014/02-08/5813434.shtml)
7. [我国西部最大的稠油联合站在新疆开建, 中国能源报 (2013-04-08)](https://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2013-04/08/content_1223136.htm)
8. [特别报道｜升级SAGD，变不可能为可能, 搜狐 (2021)](https://www.sohu.com/a/441288597_158724)
9. [Fengcheng Report, Wood Mackenzie](https://www.woodmac.com/reports/upstream-oil-and-gas-fengcheng-14269646/)
10. [非均质储层内夹层对SAGD开发的影响及技术对策, 石油钻采工艺 (2020)](https://syzcgysj.xml-journal.net/article/doi/10.13639/j.odpt.2020.02.018?viewType=HTML)
11. [鱼骨型分支井SAGD分支形态优化及采出程度变化规律, 特种油气藏 (2024)](https://opaj.napstic.cn/periodicalArticle/0120240402961500)
12. [新疆风城油田破解Ⅲ类油藏开发难题，填补超稠油技术空白, 中国石油新闻中心 (2025-03-27)](https://center.cnpc.com.cn/bk/system/2025/03/27/030159581.shtml)
13. [Decarbonizing SAGD in Heterogeneous Ultra-Heavy-Oil Reservoirs (preprint), Research Square](https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7160729/v1_covered_22c7f4e1-20d0-4bde-aeec-9b4fd49d865f.pdf?c=1753691054)
14. [新疆风城油田稠油累产超1500万吨, 中国石油新疆油田 (2025-08-05)](https://trxf.cnpc.com.cn/content/subject_edu/content_41303.shtml)
15. [Design and application of a novel coal-fired drum boiler using saline water in heavy oil recovery, Frontiers in Energy (2020)](https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/CN/10.1007/s11708-020-0690-3)
16. [国内首个塔式水工质高温光热项目投产, 中国石油报 (2025-09-16)](https://trxf.cnpc.com.cn/content/h/content_41511.shtml)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Energy technology › Oil industry › Drilling, refining, and products › Oil fields of Asia and Oceania › Oil fields of China*
*Initially written Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license