BEIJING, China (Reuters) – China has mastered the core technologies for mining natural gas hydrate after it extracted high purity gas in the South China Sea for 22 consecutive days, the longest time in the world, the Ministry of Land and Resources said Friday.
Trial mining of natural gas hydrate, commonly known as “combustible ice” as it can be ignited like solid ethanol, in the Shenhu Sea area about 320 kilometers southeast of south China’s Zhuhai City, started on March 28.
Engineers began to extract natural gas hydrate at a depth of 1,266 meters underwater on May 10.
Natural gas with content of methane as high as 99.5 percent has been extracted for 22 consecutive days in the area by Friday, without causing changes in geological parameters or environmental pollution.
“So far it has been going on for 22 consecutive days. The airflow and air pressure are stable at present and the condition of the shaft bottom is good,” said Li Jinfa, deputy head of the China Geological Survey.
Combustible ice usually exists in seabed or tundra areas, which have the strong pressure and low temperature necessary for its stability.
One cubic meter of combustible ice is equal to 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas.
It is recognized as clean and efficient energy that is the best replacement for oil and natural gas.
The combustible ice resources in China’s sea areas are estimated at 80 billion tons of oil equivalent.
The internationally recognized global quantity of combustible ice is 21 trillion tons of oil equivalent.
“We have confirmed through geological surveys that there are two large gas fields of hundred-billion cubic meters each in the South China Sea. Their confirmation lays a solid foundation for establishing a large resources base for commercial mining in the future,” said Li.
Although mining of combustible ice started in the 1960s, China began research in this field in 1998.
The success marks a historic breakthrough after nearly two decades of continuous efforts and independent innovations by China in theory, technology, engineering and equipment for natural gas hydrate exploration and exploitation.
