(250506) -- CAIRO, May 6, 2025 (Xinhua) -- Li Chundi, chairman of ZPEC, tastes groundwater from a water well drilled by the ZPEC branch in Egypt in the desert of New Valley Governorate, Egypt, on May 3, 2025. Over 1,300 kilometers away from the capital Cairo, a sea of ripe wheat, rippling in the breeze, are waiting to be harvested in a desert.

"It used to be an arid desert here and the well-drilling teams have turned it into farmland," said Mohamed Gabar, a worker with the Owainat Water Well Project operated by ZPEC (China's Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group Corp., Ltd.) branch in Egypt.

The project, located in southern desert of New Valley Governorate, is part of the country's efforts to accelerate its desert reclamation initiatives since 2015.

At the project site, six towering rigs are drilling deep into the desert in search of groundwater. "There are six well-drilling teams, comprising over 130 employees from China and Egypt," said the project manager Zhao Baojiang. The rigs operate 24 hours a day, with workers rotating in two shifts, he introduced. In less than a year, more than 60 units of 450-meter-deep water wells have been finished here.

Egypt, home to over 100 million people, grapples with the daunting task of cultivating more land for agriculture, as only five percent of its territory is currently arable.

In 2016, ZPEC established its Egyptian branch to enter local water well market, and has become a major force by now with its advanced equipment and technical advantages. The New Valley's project is one of its several contracts with Egyptian proprietors, which also involved governorates such as Minya, Matrouh and Aswan.

Over the past years, ZPEC branch in Egypt has tackled harsh desert conditions and various challenges, drilling more than 680 wells across the country, which have greatly helped turn vast barren desert into fields. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)