S.Korea Discovers Large Gas Hydrate Deposits

S.Korea discovers large gas hydrate deposits

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) — South Korea has discovered a potentially large gas hydrate deposit in the Ulleung Basin off theeast coast, South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said on Thursday.

According to the ministry, the deposit is located 135 km northeast of the port city of Pohang in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), and has been determined to have a thickness of about 130 meters.

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, theministry said.

Gas hydrates are usually found deep under water where cold temperatures and extreme pressure cause natural gas to condense into semisolid form. It can be used as liquid natural gas (LNG).

The ministry said that South Korea also found another gas hydrate deposit that was 100 meters thick 9 km from where the initial discovery was made.

Besides, a one-meter-thick gas hydrate deposit was found 42 km south of the 130-meter-thick deposit, the ministry said.

The discovery in three locations raised the possibility that upto 600 million tons of gas hydrate may be found in the East Sea, the ministry said.

This amount is sufficient to fulfill the country’s LNG needs for 30 years, the ministry said.

South Korea spent 66.7 billion won (71.2 million U.S. dollars) from 2005 to 2007 to explore the hydrate deposits. It plans to spend another 85 billion won (90.8 million U.S. dollars) until 2011 to collect additional data on the location of potential deposits and develop the necessary technology to use this energy source, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said.

South Korea plans to start research on efficient methods to extract and use the resource in 2012, Yonhap said.

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