Japan eager to develop "flammable ice" for the first time in the world

According to the Nikkei news on July 25 in Tokyo, the Nikkei Shimbun reported that a test funded by the Japanese government will try to extract natural gas from methane hydrates at the end of the fiscal year 2012. This will be the first time in the world that it will be carried out offshore. This test.

The test is expected to take place in the ocean at Toyoyama Prefecture in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo. The entire trial process will take several weeks and the final decision will be made in early August. It is planned for the fiscal year up to March 2013.

The Nikkei Financial News said that the Japanese government will support further research and plans to begin commercial mining in the early part of the next decade.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is preparing to request an increase of more than 10 billion yen in the budget for the fiscal year 2012 for the project, and the funds will be used to support Japan's oil and gas and metal companies. Methane hydrates are also sometimes referred to as combustible ice, including methane and water molecules, formed in cold and high pressure environments. Combustible ice exists in low-pressure high-pressure areas of the seabed, and is often close to the continental fault line: where the gas solidifies after it comes into contact with cold seawater.

In the investigation from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2006, METI confirmed that the natural gas contained in the combustible ice in the sea of ​​Shizuoka Prefecture and Gozan Prefecture could meet Japan's 13-year demand. It is estimated that the combustible ice in Japanese waters can meet Japan's demand for 100 years, but METI said that only 20%-30% of the reserves can be mined.

The newspaper said that if this offshore trial is successful, it will be the world’s first extraction of natural gas from methane hydrates on the seabed. In the past, people used Japanese research techniques to extract methane from land methane hydrates in Canada.

The earthquake and tsunami on March 11 triggered the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years. Since then, Japan has been seeking to diversify its energy sources. Japan, which lacks resources, has relied heavily on oil imports from the Middle East. Until recently, a third of its electricity has come from nuclear power, but it is now planning to develop renewable energy such as solar and wind power.

In 2006, a research team from the University of Tokyo and the Ocean Research and Development Agency of Japan discovered the first exposed flammable ice zone in the East Sea near Niigata Prefecture in Japan.

In 2008, Canada began to extract methane from land-based flammable ice, using Japanese technology. If the marine experiment is successful, it will be the first time in the world that natural gas is extracted from the seafloor combustible ice.

According to relevant statistical data, Japan is currently one of the countries with more proven reserves of flammable ice in the world, which is approximately 7.4 trillion cubic meters. It is estimated that it can be maintained for 100 years in 1999 when Japan's domestic natural gas consumption is calculated. Japan has a wide range of flammable ice that covers almost every area from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

It is understood that natural gas rich in flammable ice is an environmentally friendly green energy source. In recent years, Japan’s dependence on natural gas has increased year by year. If flammable ice is widely used, Japan will also greatly reduce its dependence on energy sources such as the Middle East and Indonesia. Now that the world’s oil reserves are continuously decreasing and international oil prices are rising, if flammable ice becomes the main energy source, Japan will leap from the “small resource country” to the world’s largest resource country.