China's desert oilfield hits record: 8,080m deep core from 500m-year-old rock

China’s largest desert oilfield has extracted more than 26 million tons of oil and gas from ultra-deep formations beneath the Taklimakan Desert, marking a major milestone in the country’s push to tap increasingly difficult underground reserves.The Fuman Oilfield, located on the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has produced a combined 26.86 million tons of oil and gas equivalent, according to China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), which operates the field.The milestone comes as engineers explore formations buried thousands of metres beneath the surface, with a recent drilling operation retrieving rock cores from a depth of 8,080 metres.Rock core recovered from 8,080 metres undergroundAt the Zhentan-1 well on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert, engineers recently brought rock cores to the surface from 8,080 metres below ground.According to a report by China Central Television (CCTV) News, the rocks have been buried for approximately 500…