Sowing green hope in the "sea of ​​death" - a summary of the construction of the country's first zero-carbon desert highway

　　On June 2, PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Desert Highway Zero-Carbon Demonstration Project was completed and put into production
.
The newly built 86 photovoltaic power stations are "settled" in the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert.
More than 10,000 solar photovoltaic panels continuously convert solar energy into electric energy for pumping irrigation, providing a more "green" water source for the 436-kilometer desert highway ecological protection forest.
Zero carbon emissions on all highways
.
The Tarim Desert Highway has become the first zero-carbon desert highway in China
.

　　From the inaccessible yellow sand, to the rise of modern oil and gas stations; from the full line of desert roads to the lush greenery of the ecological shelter forest; from diesel power generation pumping irrigation, to "green dyeing" the desert with sunlight.
.
.
Tarim Oilfield has gone out.
A new path to scientifically control deserts, and a green and low-carbon development path in which ecological environment improvement and oil and gas exploration and development complement each other
.

　　Entering the "Sea of ​​Death", the ancient desert becomes a "passage"

　　For Tarim oil people, "sand" is no stranger at all
.
At the beginning of the Tarim Oil Battle in 1989, oil people from all over the world actively responded to China's onshore oil industry's strategic deployment of "stabilizing the east and developing the west", joined forces in southern Xinjiang, worked hard and advanced to the Taklimakan Desert, opening the door to "searching for a big scene, developing the west".
The dream of building a large oil and gas field”
.

　　The good news came soon.
The first major oil and gas discovery well deployed in the desert hinterland in Tarim Oilfield, Tazhong 1 Well, spewed high-yield oil and gas flow, showing huge resource potential
.
However, if oil and gas exploration in the desert hinterland is to be carried out on a large scale, it is first necessary to subdue the "stumbling block" of the desert and build a road leading to the desert hinterland
.

　　The Taklimakan Desert, located in the center of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, covers an area of ​​330,000 square kilometers.
It is the largest desert in China and the second largest mobile desert in the world
.
Because of its extremely harsh natural environment, it is called "the sea of ​​death" by the locals
.

　　Oil needs to be added quickly, and Xinjiang needs to get rich quickly.
The key is to build roads
.
Facing a series of world-class problems such as the unprecedented long-distance road construction in deserts, the amazing degree of sand damage and erosion, construction technology and road construction materials, Tarim Oilfield has joined hands with more than 180 experts from 17 scientific research units inside and outside Xinjiang to carry out day and night.
Indoor and field test research
.

　　After 4 years of arduous struggle, in 1995, Tarim Oilfield finally opened up the north-south traffic barrier of the basin
.
The Tarim Desert Highway with a total length of 566 kilometers was opened to traffic, making it the longest graded highway in the world running through the mobile desert, which has effectively promoted the economic development and oil and gas exploration and development of border minority areas
.

　　Building roads in the desert is harder, and protecting them is even harder
.
Facing the ruthless invasion of the road by wind and sand, Tarim Oilfield once again declared war on the desert and implemented the ecological protection forest project along the desert road
.
Countless winter, summer and dawn cultivation of seedlings have finally planted the 436-kilometer-long forest belt on both sides of the road
.
The 109 well houses along the forest belt are pumped and irrigated day and night, allowing more than 20 million drought-resistant and alkali-resistant sandy vegetation to take root deeply, which firmly binds the "salon" and realizes the transition from "sand in and people retreat" to The transformation of "green in the sand and retreat" has become another major initiative of human beings to control deserts
.

　　People live up to the green hills, and the green hills will certainly live up to people
.
Today, the Tarim Desert Highway can be described as "brilliant".
Under the protection of 436 kilometers of ecological protection forest, a flat road runs through the north and south of the Taklimakan Desert.
Businessmen gather, vehicles are bustling, and rich oil and natural gas spew out from the desert hinterland.
.
.
…The prosperity of the ancient Silk Road has once again appeared in front of the world
.

　　"Green Great Wall" runs from north to south and walks out of the new road for photovoltaic desertification control

　　After 17 years of careful cultivation, management and protection, the average height of the 47,000-mu shelterbelt exceeds 2 meters, and the survival rate is as high as 85%
.
Shaguai jujube, Haloxylon vulgaris, red willow and other vegetation stand lushly on both sides of the desert road, and more than 100 species of birds migrate and inhabit along this "green channel"
.
Animals such as hares, gerbils, and sand foxes have settled here, and the ecological environment has gradually formed
.

　　Over the years, the "carbon" change of the Tarim Desert Highway is the vivid practice of Xi Jinping's thought on ecological civilization in the Tarim Basin
.

　　Clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets
.
The desert highway under the protection of the "green corridor" has resisted the invasion of wind and sand
.
It is also relying on this highway that 32 large and medium-sized oil and gas fields in Tarim Oilfield have sprung up like mushrooms in the desert hinterland and surrounding areas
.
In 2021, the annual oil and gas production of Tarim Oilfield will climb to 31.
82 million tons, making it the third largest onshore oil and gas field in China
.

　　Especially in recent years, Tarim Oilfield has found 70 oil and gas-rich fault zones deep in the desert hinterland, and an ultra-deep oil and gas area full of 1 billion tons has emerged, forming a large scene of horizontal continuity of hundreds of miles and vertical kilometers of oil.
Top 10 Super Projects of Central Enterprises in 2021"
.
Comprehensive breakthroughs have been made in natural gas exploration, with two trillion-cubic-meter large gas regions of Kela-Keshen and Bozi-Dabei established, and China's largest ultra-deep oil and gas production base established
.

　　For Tarim oil people, ensuring national energy security is a mission, and protecting the ecological environment is an unshirkable responsibility
.

　　Tarim Oilfield actively responded to the country's call to "accelerate the planning and construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects in desert, Gobi and desert areas", and connected 11 water source wells along the desert highway to grid power and 12 water source wells in the early stage to build a photovoltaic power generation irrigation demonstration station.
On this basis, the photovoltaic transformation of the remaining 86 diesel-powered water source wells will be completed this year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 3,410 tons per year compared with diesel power generation
.

　　These inaccessible ecological "negative assets" are becoming a "hot spot" for "green electricity"
.
The total installed capacity of the 86 photovoltaic power stations is 3,540 kilowatts, with an annual power generation capacity of 3.
62 million kilowatt-hours
.

　　According to estimates, the ecological shelterbelt can absorb about 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, and the negative carbon part can neutralize the carbon emissions of passing vehicles
.