Shendi Take One: Asia's Deepest Onshore Well Reaches 10,910 Meters

We distill CNPC's Shendi Take One Well in the Taklamakan Desert—a 10,910-meter onshore drilling milestone that makes Asia’s deepest vertical well and ranks second globally behind the Kola borehole. Drilled from May 2023 to February 2025, it set a world record for the fastest onshore depth to that level and yielded the first ultra-deep onshore oil-and-gas discovery. The project confronted extreme conditions (temperatures over 210°C and pressures above 145 MPa) and relied on a domestically developed, 12,000-meter automated drilling rig with more than 90% of the system built in China. Core samples span 12 continental strata and date back about 540 million years, offering a pristine window into deep crust dynamics, plate tectonics, earthquake risk, geothermal energy potential, and carbon storage tests. With the crust averaging ~30 km and this well reaching only about 11 km, the episode explores how this 'live lab' reshapes our understanding of the deep Earth and humanity’s energy and safety future.Note:  This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes.  Please double-check any critical information.Sponsored by Embersilk LLC