A unit of PetroChina Co. Ltd. has completed drilling Asia’s deepest vertical oil well, official news agency Xinhua reported on Monday, as China’s top oil and gas firm seeks to meet government goals for greater domestic energy security.

The Pengshen 6 well, located near Mianyang city in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, is 9,026 metres deep, according to the Xinhua report.

China’s national energy companies have started to develop more expensive and technically challenging oil and gas reserves in the Sichuan basin in recent years, as part of Beijing’s drive to strengthen the country’s domestic energy security.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Andrew Hayley, editing by Ed Osmond)