Oil exploration could get a boost after a Beijing drilling equipment firm said yesterday it has created a drive mechanism that can get to a depth of 12 km.

Beijing Petroleum Machinery Factory is showing its 6.5-m drive at the three-day Eighth China International Petroleum & Petrochemical Technology and Equipment Exhibition, which ends today.

"This drive is the first produced by China that can drill to that depth," a company representative, who did not wish to be named, said.

He said a local oil company has already placed an order for the drive, which will be priced at about 20 million yuan.

The new drive comes after the Baoji Oilfield Machinery Co Ltd unveiled its oil driller that can dig to 12,000 m last November.

"These advances boost our competitiveness in the world oil exploration industry," Zhong Shude, a leading oil equipment expert at China National Petroleum Corp, said.

The companies claim the drive and driller are the most advanced in the world.

The government has mapped out an ambitious plan to explore its oil, gas and other mineral resources in its mountainous regions and deep sea to tackle an energy shortage and rising prices.

By 2010, the government wants to find 10 new oilfields, each with a reserve of at least 100 million tons, and eight to 10 new gasfields with a reserve of more than 100 billion cu m of natural gas, the Ministry of Land and Resources said.

(China Daily April 9, 2008)