Chinese oil workers were the first in the world to extract from the bottom of the South China Sea combustible ice” - natural gas hydrate, China Central Television reported, citing the Ministry of Land and natural resources China. It is important here "from the bottom", since gas from the "ice" has been extracted in the USSR since 1969. So the Chinese are exaggerating a little.
“It will be as big an event as the shale revolution that happened earlier in the US. As a result, energy use methods will undergo a transformation in the future,” said Li Jinfa, deputy director of the Geological Research Department of the ministry. He noted that China has achieved “unprecedented success” in developing the theoretical base and technologies in this direction, as a result of which the country has taken a leading position in the world in the extraction of “combustible ice”.
The samples were taken from a depth of more than 1.2 kilometers, the 200-meter subsea well itself was located 285 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong. In just eight days of work, 120 cubic meters of "combustible ice" were mined, the methane content in it is 99.5 percent.
One cubic meter of hydrate is equivalent to 164 cubic meters of natural gas per gaseous state(on 100 liters of gas, a car can travel 300 kilometers, while on 100 liters of "combustible ice" - 50 thousand kilometers).
"Combustible ice" is the colloquial name for natural gas hydrates. These are crystalline compounds formed from water and gas at certain pressures and temperatures. These hydrates look like ice.
A deposit of natural gas hydrates was discovered by Chinese experts in the South China Sea in 2007. Shortly thereafter, the construction of the mining station began. It is located in the sea 320 kilometers from Zhuhai in Guangdong province. The company started operating on March 28, 2017.
The first samples of "combustible ice" were recovered from a depth of 1266 meters on May 10. Since then, the South China Sea facility has been producing an average of 16,000 cubic meters of natural gas from hydrates daily. According to CCTV, the proportion of methane in natural gas extracted from hydrates is 99.5 percent.
Regular extraction of natural gas hydrates has been carried out since 1969 at the Messoyakha field in Siberia. It is believed that it was the first field where specialists managed to extract natural gas from "combustible ice" for the first time.
Since 2012, Japan has been trying to establish the production of natural gas hydrates. In early 2012, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp conducted test drilling 70 kilometers south of the Atsumi Peninsula. The first natural gas at the hydrate field was produced in March 2013. Full-scale development of the field is scheduled to begin in 2018. At the same time, the company did not lift samples of hydrate from the seabed; natural gas, after pumping out water, went up through the pipeline.
Japanese scientists, together with American geologists and power engineers, are launching a project to develop methane hydrate reserves under permafrost. The venue is Alaska, North Slope region. This is the most northern, inhospitable and remote part of this state, but so much the better. Here you can conduct ambitious experiments without risk to the environment and the population, which the Japanese are deprived of at home - so they are ready to generously invest in the project.
Japan is a country without energy natural raw materials, the world's largest importer of hydrocarbons. At the same time, the Japanese islands are literally surrounded by deposits of methane hydrate, known as "combustible ice." This is a combination of water and gas, which was formed under the pressure of a huge mass of water and a temperature of about 0 degrees. It is worth bringing a match to a handful of combustible ice, as it will begin to burn quietly, like ordinary methane. And you can scoop the substance directly from the seabed, where it is extremely abundant.
Problems begin when the question of industrial extraction of hydrate arises. It is extremely unstable, and if raw materials are pulled to the surface in cubic meters at once, a gas leak will most likely occur. It is impossible to extract tons of hydrate from the soil without losing the gas itself and without destroying the structure of the underwater ridge. But we are talking about a seismically active region, and man-made tsunamis in addition to the annual natural disasters no one needs. Japanese scientists have experience in extracting methane, but they do not have a suitable platform for experiments.
Alaska, with its permafrost, can be an excellent testing ground. It has already been proven that it is most convenient to supply heat inside the wells, melt the hydrate there and pump out only the methane itself to the surface. The technologies are not very complicated, the tasks of delivering equipment to the icy desert and finding suitable energy sources are also solvable. The question is different - what to do if the idea is successful?
It is still impossible to transfer a land drilling station to the seabed without new large-scale studies and improvements - and this is a matter of politics and public trust. The US will definitely not allow the Japanese to extract gas freely in Alaska. Of course, the Americans themselves can move from the development of shale to the development of methane hydrate using Japanese technology. Especially when you consider that it is in combustible ice that contains almost a third of all carbon in minerals on Earth, the rest is oil, coal and gas. But, again, while there are no methods for the industrial production of methane hydrate, it is completely unclear whether this will be economically beneficial in comparison with conventional gas production.
Combustible ice is essentially frozen natural gas - a hydrate of natural gas, and one of the newest sources of energy. New deposits discovered in China are opening up a huge source, equivalent to at least 35 billion tons of oil, enough to power China for 90 years.
Scientists have found combustible ice on high altitude on ice-covered plateaus, as well as underwater in marine sediments. Natural gas hydrates are essentially frozen methane and water and can literally burn, giving a new meaning to ice and fire. Researchers have yet to go deeper the new kind fuel before it can be commercialized. The US Department of Energy is also interested in this issue, the researchers suggest that the hydrate must go through a phase transformation and, when melted, turn into methane and water before it can be effectively burned. If it melts on its own as the earth warms, methane could be released into the atmosphere - which could cause even more damage than simply burning it.
One cubic meter of combustible ice contains 164 cubic meters of conventional natural gas and is expected to contain few impurities, meaning it will release fewer pollutants when burned.
MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Russian mathematicians created a model for the development of deposits of the richest source of natural gas on the planet - gas hydrates, the concentration of which is high in the Arctic zone, and Skoltech scientists proposed a technology for extracting methane from hydrates. Experts told TASS how the production of such methane will help reduce the greenhouse effect, what are the advantages of new research, and whether there are prospects for the industrial development of gas hydrates in Russia.
Against the greenhouse effect
Gas hydrates are solid crystalline compounds of ice and gas, they are also called "combustible ice". In nature, they are found in the thickness of the ocean floor and in permafrost, so it is very difficult to extract them - you need to drill wells to a depth of several hundred meters, and then extract natural gas from ice deposits and transport it to the surface. Chinese oilmen managed to do this in the South China Sea in 2017, but for this they had to go deeper into the seabed by more than 200 meters, despite the fact that the depth in the production area exceeded 1.2 km.
Researchers consider gas hydrates to be a promising source of energy, which can be in demand, in particular, by countries that are limited in other energy resources, for example, Japan and South Korea th. Estimates of the content of methane, the combustion of which provides energy, in gas hydrates in the world vary: from 2.8 quadrillion tons according to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation to 5 quadrillion tons according to the World Energy Agency (IEA). Even minimal estimates reflect huge reserves: for comparison, BP (British Petroleum) Corporation estimated the global volume of oil reserves in 2015 at 240 billion tons.
"According to the estimates of some organizations, primarily Gazprom VNIIGAZ, the resources of methane in gas hydrates on the territory of the Russian Federation range from 100 to 1,000 trillion cubic meters, in the Arctic zone, including the seas, up to 600-700 trillion cubic meters, but this is very approximate," - Yevgeny Chuvilin, a leading researcher at the Center for Hydrocarbon Production at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), told TASS.
In addition to the source of energy itself, gas hydrates can be a salvation from greenhouse gases, which will stop global warming. The voids freed from methane can be filled with carbon dioxide.
"According to researchers, methane hydrates contain more than 50% of carbon from the total known world hydrocarbon reserves. This is not only the richest source of hydrocarbon gas on our planet, but also a possible reservoir for carbon dioxide, which is considered a greenhouse gas. You can kill two birds with one stone - get methane, burn it for energy and pump in its place obtained from combustion carbon dioxide, which will take the place of methane in the hydrate," the deputy director for scientific work Tyumen branch of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nail Musakaev.
In permafrost conditions
Today, researchers identify three main promising methods for the extraction of gas hydrates.
"Before extracting gas from hydrates, it is necessary to decompose them into components - gas and water or gas and ice. The main methods of gas production can be distinguished - lowering the pressure at the bottom of the well, heating the reservoir with hot water or steam, injection of inhibitors (substances for the decomposition of gas hydrates - TASS note) into the reservoir," Musakaev explained.
Scientists from Tyumen and Sterlitamak created mathematical model for methane production in permafrost. It is noteworthy in that it takes into account the process of ice formation during the development of the field.
"The formation of ice has pros and cons: it can clog equipment, but, on the other hand, the decomposition of gas hydrate into gas and ice requires three times less energy than when decomposed into gas and water," Musakaev said.
The advantage of mathematical modeling is the ability to predict the scenario for the development of gas hydrate deposits, including evaluating the economic efficiency of methods for extracting gas from such deposits. The results may be of interest to design organizations involved in planning and exploration of gas hydrate deposits, the scientist noted.
Skoltech is also developing technologies for extracting methane from hydrates. Together with colleagues from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Skoltech scientists proposed to extract methane from gas hydrates by pumping air into the rock formation. "This method is more economical than existing ones, and has less impact on environment", - explained Chuvilin.
This method assumes that carbon dioxide or nitrogen is injected into the reservoir, and gas hydrates decompose into components due to the difference in pressure. "We are still conducting methodological studies to test the method and its effectiveness. It is still a long way before the creation of technology, while we are creating the physical and chemical foundations of this technology," the scientist emphasized.
According to Chuvilin, there are no completely ready-made technologies for the efficient extraction of methane from hydrates in Russia yet, since there are no targeted programs to support this scientific direction. But development is still ongoing. "Perhaps, gas hydrates will not become the main energy resource of the future, but their use will certainly require the development of new knowledge," Musakaev added.
Economic expediency
The exploration and development of gas hydrate deposits is considered among the long-term prospects for gas production by the forecast for the development of the fuel and energy complex of Russia for the period up to 2035. The document notes that gas hydrates can become "a factor in the global energy industry only in 30-40 years," but a breakthrough scenario is not ruled out. In any case, the development of hydrates will lead to a global redistribution in the world market of fuel resources - gas prices will decrease, and mining corporations will only be able to save income by capturing new markets and increasing sales. For the mass development of such deposits, it is necessary to create new technologies, improve and reduce the cost of existing ones, the strategy notes.
Given the inaccessibility of hydrates and the complexity of their production, experts call them a promising source of energy, but note that this is not a trend in the coming years - hydrates require new technologies that are still being developed. And in the conditions of well-established production of natural gas, methane from hydrates is not in the most advantageous position. In the future, everything will depend on the conjuncture of the energy market.
Aleksey Cheremisin, Deputy Director of the Skoltech Center for Hydrocarbon Production, believes that methane from hydrates will not be produced soon just because of the existing reserves of traditional gas.
"The timing of commercial production depends both on the economically available technology for searching, localizing and producing gas, as well as on market factors. Gas producing companies have a sufficient amount of conventional gas reserves, so they consider gas hydrate production technologies as a long-term reserve. In my opinion, industrial production in the Russian Federation will begin no earlier than in 10 years," the expert said.
According to Chuvilin, there are fields in Russia where methane from gas hydrates can be produced in the next 10 years, and this will be quite promising. "In some gas fields of the north Western Siberia with the depletion of traditional gas reservoirs, it is possible to develop overlying horizons, where the gas can also be in the hydrate form. This is possible in the next decade, everything will depend on the cost of energy," the source said.
The Japanese have this week opened a new front in their desperate fight to lower global natural gas prices. Now they are the first in the world to mine it off their coast from an underwater deposit of a completely fantastic thing - the so-called. "combustible ice", methane hydrates.
A clearly premature euphoria arose in the country about this: one of the deputies of parliament, in a temper, even called for thinking about the development of a future strategy for Japan as a new major exporter of natural gas - the second after Russia in the Far East. Recall for those who do not know - now our wealthy island neighbor in Far East in general, there are practically no minerals other than unprofitable coal. But, everything is in order.
Methane hydrate is a combination of methane gas with water, which occurs at very low temperatures and under high pressure. Outwardly, this thing resembles melted loose snow or, if you like, sherbet. There is a lot of methane hydrate on the planet - in the Arctic tundra, at the bottom or under the bottom of the oceans. Rich deposits, by the way, are also available in Russia. Methane can be separated from water by either raising the temperature or lowering the pressure. But this is easy to say - as in the case of shale gas, there were no effective technologies of this kind for a long time.
The first breakthrough was made in Canada: back in 2007 and 2008, gas was produced there from methane hydrate deposits in the tundra. But the venture was suspended on this - the cost of production turned out to be prohibitively high.
Since the 1980s, the Japanese have been actively dealing with the problem of methane hydrates, which, as it turned out, are quite numerous around their country. The prospect, if not of self-sufficiency in natural gas, then at least of a significant reduction in total bondage dependence on its purchases abroad, turned one's head. By now, deposits adjacent to Japan in the Sea of Okhotsk, in the Sea of Japan, and off the Pacific coast of the country turned to America have already been explored in general. According to estimates, there are so many methane reserves there that they can fully meet the needs of Japan within 100 years at the current level of natural gas consumption. A hundred years! In short, the game was considered worth the candle, government appropriations were allocated, and the field 70 km from the Atsumi Peninsula in the central part of the Pacific coast of the main Japanese island Honshu.
Back in February last year, the unique research vessel Tikyu (Earth) drilled four test wells there. The depth of the ocean in the operation area is 1000 meters. The wells confirmed the presence of methane hydrates suitable for production. The field, according to estimates, can fully meet the needs of Japan in natural gas within 10-11 years.
In the same area, Tikyu drilled and completed a production well 300 meters deep. Last Tuesday, equipment was lowered there and a historical event- after four hours of waiting, an orange flame flared up on the burner near the deck of the ship - it was methane, for the first time in history obtained from underwater "combustible ice".
The experiment will continue for another two weeks, and then the Japanese will start thinking further based on the data obtained. The main task is to reduce the cost, since the production of gas from methane hydrate is extremely expensive. With current technology, it costs more than three times as much as the liquefied natural gas currently imported by Japan. However, shale gas was also considered unprofitable at one time. Until breakthrough technologies were found in the USA that caused a revolution in the market.
Tokyo also believes they can find new methods to drastically cut costs. The government has set a goal to develop commercially viable technologies for exploiting methane hydrate deposits by fiscal year 2018. The money allocated for this from the budget is quite decent.
By the way, methane hydrates are now actively engaged in South Korea, which is also deprived of natural resources. China this week published a report in which it pointedly reminded that it ranks third in terms of methane reserves and is second only to Russia and Canada in this indicator. During the current five-year plan (2011-15), it is planned to begin production of this gas at two fields in China. By 2015, they want to bring it up to 30 billion cubic meters per year. Then production will start at five more fields. The goal is not hidden - to reduce the dependence of the PRC on foreign supplies of natural gas.
By the way, Beijing has been holding long, painful negotiations with Russia on the price of gas, which Moscow really wants to send to China through a pipeline. The PRC does not concede and believes that time and the development of new technologies are on its side, tariffs will still have to be significantly reduced.
The Japanese, the world's largest buyer of liquefied natural gas, are counting on the same. Of course, talk about complete "gas independence" on the basis of "burning ice" is still a utopia. However, quite possible successes in the development of technologies for more or less profitable use of methane hydrate, combined with the start of purchases of cheap shale liquefied gas in the USA and Canada, will allow, according to Tokyo, to confidently bring down prices for traditional gas. According to the Japanese, in the coming years they can reduce their spending on this resource by at least fifteen percent. So far - only due to the factor of American shale gas.
As for Gazprom, the Japanese are also ready to buy its products. But prices will be effectively brought down by all available means. Using now the American shale factor, and then, if possible, "combustible ice". “As it turned out, there is a lot of natural gas in the world, the market is full. And this must be understood,” a diplomat who at one time headed the Russian Department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry once told me.
