North China Oilfield has maintained its annual crude oil production above 5 million tons for the second consecutive year.
On January 9, it was announced that North China Oilfield's annual crude oil output surpassed 5 million tons in 2025. This marks the second straight year, since 2024, that the oilfield's annual production has exceeded this threshold.
Since its exploration and development began in 1976, the North China Oilfield has faced natural resource decline. The mature areas of the field have largely entered a stage characterized by high water content and high recovery rates, causing the overall annual crude output to fall below 5 million tons in the early 1990s, with steadily increasing challenges to maintain stable production.
In recent years, North China Oilfield has prioritized innovation, intensifying efforts to increase reserves in mature fields while aggressively pursuing major breakthroughs in exploring new blocks, new strata, new types, and new domains.
In 2025, focusing on boosting per-well daily oil production, the oilfield advanced its "'1+4' Ballast" project. It selected the Suning-Dawangzhuang oilfield—notable for its significant share of reserves and production, prominent development challenges, and substantial remaining oil potential—as the flagship ballast demonstration project. This initiative spurred four other company-level demonstration projects at Xiliu-Gaoyang, Bieguzhuang, Jicheng-Jingqiu, and the Arxan oilfields, driving technological innovation to systematically stabilize output in mature fields. In 2025, the combined annual oil production from these "'1+4' Ballast" blocks exceeded 1.54 million tons.
Among them, the Suning-Dawangzhuang oilfield, a mature asset containing 27 fault blocks across four reservoir types, saw technicians conduct in-depth studies on the distribution patterns of remaining oil, pressure, and flow fields. This work unlocked the potential of low-permeability layers and remaining oil-enriched areas, leading to an annual output exceeding 745,000 tons in 2025.
Technological innovation serves as the primary driver for increasing production in these mature fields. On January 6, at the site of the Balixi Buried Hill CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) pilot project—the largest carbon-driven oil recovery and storage initiative in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, located in Hejian City—liquid carbon dioxide was being injected into the formation at an average rate of 20 tons per hour for enhanced oil recovery operations.
"The buried hill reservoir in this area is a primary reservoir for North China Oilfield. After over 40 years of extraction, it has entered a 'double-high' phase of high recovery degree and high water cut, with the remaining oil being scattered and elusive, making conventional extraction methods largely ineffective," explained Gu Shengqun, a Second-Level Engineer at the No. 3 Oil Production Plant of North China Oilfield. In recent years, they have injected carbon dioxide to enhance oil recovery. By December 27, 2025, the project had cumulatively injected 300,000 tons of CO2. The daily oil production at the site consequently surged from 30 tons at the beginning of 2025 to over 100 tons by year's end.
While boosting output in mature fields, North China Oilfield is also actively promoting reserve growth and efficient development in new blocks. It has conducted efficient exploration in the shallow to medium-depth profitable reserve areas of the western slope in the Jizhong Depression and advanced production capacity development in new blocks. In the Bayan oilfield, developed by North China Oilfield in the northern part of the Yellow River's "Ji" shape bend, south of the Yin Mountains, derricks stand dense and drilling rigs roar. In 2025, the Bayan oilfield achieved an annual crude oil production of nearly 1.5 million tons.
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