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An Energy Coup for Japan: Flammable Ice
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: March 25th, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/business/global/japan-says...
Japan said [on March 12] that it had extracted gas from offshore deposits of methane hydrate. The gas, whose extraction from the undersea hydrate reservoir was thought to be a world first, could provide an alternative source of energy to known oil and gas reserves. That could be crucial especially for Japan, which is the worlds biggest importer of liquefied natural gas and is engaged in a public debate about whether to resume the countrys heavy reliance on nuclear power. Experts estimate that the carbon found in gas hydrates worldwide totals at least twice the amount of carbon in all of the earths other fossil fuels, making it a potential game-changer for energy-poor countries like Japan. Researchers had already successfully extracted gas from onshore methane hydrate reservoirs, but not from beneath the seabed, where much of the worlds deposits are thought to lie. The exact properties of undersea hydrates and how they might affect the environment are still poorly understood, given that methane is a greenhouse gas.
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