South Korea Discovers “Large” Gas Hydrate Deposits Off East Coast
Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap
[By Lee Joon-seung: "S. Korea Discovers Large Gas Hydrate Deposits In East Sea"]
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) – South Korea has discovered a potentially large gas hydrate deposit in the Ulleung Basin off the east coast, the government said Thursday.
The deposit in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] is located 135 kilometres northeast of the port city of Pohang, and has been determined to have a thickness of about 130 meters, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said.
It said the thickness of the gas hydrate found in the new site is much greater than that found by Japan, India and China in the past.
Gas hydrates are usually found deep under water where cold temperatures and extreme pressure cause natural gas to condense into semisolid form. When brought to the surface, it can be used as liquid natural gas (LNG).
The ministry, in addition, said the 54-day-long search and exploratory drilling in waters that were sometimes 1,800 meters deep, also found a gas hydrate deposit that was 100 meters thick. This deposit was located 9 kilometres from where the initial discovery was made, while a third, one-meter-thick gas hydrate deposit was located 42 kilometres south of the 130-meter-thick deposit.
It said the discovery in three locations raised the possibility that up to 600m tons of gas hydrate may be found in the East Sea. This amount is sufficient to meet the country’s LNG needs for 30 years. In 2005, South Korea imported 2.7m tons of LNG to meet domestic demand.
Experts from the Korea National Oil Corp., Korea Institute of Geoscience & Mineral Resources and Korea Gas Corp. took part in the exploration, with Fugro NV of the Netherlands providing the specialized drilling vessel to conduct the probes.
Seoul invested 66.7bn won (US71.2m dollars) from 2005 to 2007 to conduct initial studies to find and determine the size of hydrate deposits. It plans to spend another 85.0bn won until 2011 to collect additional data on the location of potential deposits and develop the necessary technology to use this energy source. In the third phase that will start in 2012 and run through 2014, efficient methods to extract and use the resource will be developed.
Global energy experts said there may be up to 10 trillion tons of gas hydrates in deep oceans and permafrost areas.
Originally published by Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0233 22 Nov 07.
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