Vast Quantities of Methane Hydrate Discovered in Northwestern China

By intern reporter Zhang Yanling Methane hydrate, also known as flammable ice, has been found for the first time on land in China, below the country's northwestern tundra, said Zhang Hongtao, director-general of the China Geological Survey. Stable only at low temperatures and high pressure, methane hydrate is made up of crystalline solids. It has a high energy density and one cubic meter produces as much energy as 164 cubic meters of natural gas, according to Zhang. The frozen gas is being contemplated as a possible replacement to fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. It is regarded as the most promising strategic resource in the 21st century. Gas hydrates exist in large quantities either in the seafloor or below the tundra at high latitudes, at twice as much the combined volume of coal, petroleum and natural gas. In 1965, reserves were found for the first time by the Soviet Union below its permafrost in the Siberian region. China has the world's third largest area of tundra, which covers 2.15 million square kilometers. Samples of gas hydrate were successfully collected from the South China Sea in 2001, making China the world's fourth country to find reserves of flammable ice in the seafloor, following the United States, Japan and India. Chinese scientists estimated that the potential volume of the gas hydrate in China exceeds 35 billion tons in oil equivalent. China's gas hydrates detected around continental slopes have a methane concentration as high as 99.8 percent. Those found on land are buried in rocks and the methane is mixed with ethane, propane and carbon dioxide. Zhang argued that there is greater commercial viability in extracting flammable gas from the tundra than from under the seafloor. The geologic setting of seafloor drilling causes a release of high pressure, potentially damaging marine ecosystems. Zhang estimated that undersea commercial-scale production in China will be possible in 30 years, while land extraction is expected to be possible in 10 to 15 years. Due to the fragile environment of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau where gas hydrates exist, Zhang added that environmental costs must be accounted for in commercial scale plans. Furthermore, reserves of flammable gas were found where there are coal mines, raising the issue of optimizing different resources without causing waste.