Focus on the Development of Natural Gas Hydrate in China

Abstract

Natural gas hydrate, also known as combustible ice, and mainly composed of methane, is identified as a potential clean energy for the 21st century. Due to its large reserves, gas hydrate can ease problems caused by energy resource shortage and has gained attention around the world. In this paper, we focus on the exploration and development of gas hydrate as well as discussing its status and future development trend in China and abroad. We then analyze its opportunities and challenges in China from four aspects, resource, technology, economy and policy, with five forces model and Politics Economics Society Technology method. The results show China has abundance gas hydrate resource; however, backward technologies and inadequate investment have seriously hindered the future development of gas hydrate; thus, China should establish relevant cooperation framework and intuitional arrangement to attract more investment as well as breaking through technical difficulties to commercialization gas hydrate as soon as possible.

Recent Advances on Natural Gas Hydrate Exploration and Development in the South China Sea

“…The reserve of natural gas bonded in hydrates in the Qinghai–Tibet plateau permafrost region may reach up to 2.4 × 10 14 m 3 . Additionally, the abundant existence of NGH has been geologically, geophysically, and geochemically confirmed in the SCS. , It is preliminarily indicated that the estimated reserve of natural gas in the SCS is over 6.5 × 10 13 m 3 STP, which is ∼5.3 × 10 10 tons of oil equivalents, twice the other petroleum resource quantity in the SCS. ,− …”

“…Proven NGH-bearing sediments distribution in China. [This figure was reproduced from ref . Copyright 2016, MDPI.…”

“…Estimated reserve (trillion cubic meters) of gas hydrate in China. [The concept was taken from ref . ]…”

A social, environmental and economic evaluation protocol for potential gas hydrate exploitation projects

“…For commercialisation to occur soon, the broader impacts of gas hydrate exploitation need to be researched simultaneously with production technology and resource evaluation. Current analysis of the wider implications of developing gas hydrate (Tan et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2017) has not been linked with detailed assessments of gas production. Present gas hydrate research is focussed on evaluating resource size at any specific location and the effectiveness of the chosen production technique, but investigation beyond the technical aspects of gas hydrate production is rare.…”

“…As a result, economic studies that have followed Arctic field tests, have used gas production and development costs to compare gas hydrate to other resources (Walsh et al, 2009). Although providing a useful estimate of economic viability, these estimates do not consider the cost and value of gas hydrate down the full industrial supply chain (Tan et al, 2016).…”