(ECNS) — The Hade-Fuman Oilfield in northwest China’s Xinjiang has cumulatively produced more than 26 million metric tons of oil and gas equivalent from reservoirs deeper than 6,000 meters, China National Petroleum Corp. said Monday.

At the Zhentan-1 well on the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, a roughly 500-million-year-old rock core was recently recovered from a depth of 8,080 meters, marking the first time China has retrieved a core from below 8,000 meters along the northwestern margin of the Tarim Basin.

Tarim Oilfield has completed 485 ultra-deep wells at Hade-Fuman as it expands oil and gas development deep beneath the desert. The field has become China’s largest desert oilfield and a major base for ultra-deep oil and gas production.

(By Helen Mo, intern Yang Hongran)