According to Xinhua News Agency, on May 18, Minister of Land and Resources Jiang Daming in the South China Sea Shenhu sea “Blue Whale One” drilling platform announced: China’s first test mining of combustible ice(natural gas hydrate) achieved success. Subsequently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council announced a success congratulatory message, which said that this historic breakthrough has an important and far-reaching impact to promote energy production and consumption revolution.
http://
Large-scale Mining to Reduce Dependence on Imported Oil
The Deputy Director of China Geological Survey Agency belonging to Ministry of Land and Resources Li Jinfa said in the CCTV news that the success of test mining of combustible ice for this time makes China a leader in the development of natural gas hydrate in the world. It will be a natural gas hydrate revolution led by China after the shale gas revolution led by the United States and it will promote the world’s energy use pattern changes. The amount of combustible ice is huge, and it is estimated that the total amount of organic carbon contained in combustible ice is twice that of the world’s known coal, oil and natural gas.
China has rich coal but is lack of oil and less gas and the dependence on imported oil is high. According to the data of General Administration of Customs, in March of this year, China’s crude oil imports rose to nearly 920 million barrels every day which is record high and far more than expected. This data has gone beyond the United States, making China the world’s largest oil importer.
Deepening the potential for clean energy such as combustible ice is significant for achieving sustainable development. The Chief Information Officer of China Energy Network Han Xiaoping said in an interview with the reporter that combustible ice is a “future energy”, as clean, renewable energy it can solve a series of long-term problems. For example, fundamentally speaking to solve the problem of haze is to adjust the energy structure. Europe and the United States rely on nuclear power and natural gas to solve pollution problems, and the role of natural gas is more important for solving the problem. To reduce pollution and achieve clean development, the fundamental problem is to get more clean gas. “Natural gas demand is large, because it is not only a kind of energy, but also a chemical raw material. If the combustible ice can be mined large-scale, it can reduce our dependence on imported oil to a certain extent.” Han Xiaoping said.
Li Jinfa said in an interview with CCTV, from the point of view of the continuity and gas production in this current test mining, we are already not far away from the commercial mining. He believes that by 2030, gas hydrate resources with the largest potential will be commercially exploited. Han Xiaoping believes that the large-scale development and utilization of combustible ice still has a long way to go. He told the reporter that the current global energy supply is quite adequate with low prices, and the cost of mining combustible ice is very expensive, the cost of largescale development of combustible ice may be lack of competitiveness. Successful mining means to overcome the technical difficulties, but does not mean that combustible ice can immediately become an alternative energy. There is a lot of high-quality energy on the land, at current situation, due to oil and gas reform is not in place, the resources did not get better development and utilization.
China’s Combustible Ice Mining Technology is Leading the world
In February this year, China Geological Survey Agency belonging to Ministry of Land and Resources said that China has initially identified the potential of China’s combustible ice resources, this year, China will carry out the trial of mining combustible ice at sea.
Deputy Chief Engineer of China Geological Survey Agency and site commander of natural gas hydrate test mining Ye Jianliang said that since the official outlet test fire success from on May 10, so far, the site has been mining for eight days, with daily production of more than 10,000 square meters, the highest daily production reaching to 35,000 square meters, this continuous and stable outlet reached the original scheduled target. Due to the vast majority of combustible ice was buried in the sea, so combustible ice mining is very difficult. At present, Japan, Canada and other countries are stepping up the mining of this future energy, but for various reasons failed to achieve or did not reach to the goal of continuous gas production. The success of this test, not only shows that the core technology of China’s natural gas hydrate exploration and development has been verified, but also marks the comprehensive strength of China in this area reached the world’s top level.
Li Jinfa said that the daily production of gas reaches to more than 10,000 square meters, continuous gas production lasts for one week, all the indicators are more than the intended target, so our country is the first country which has achieved the success of natural gas hydrate development in the world. In order to achieve this goal, Chinese scientists use the antihypertensive method to reduce pressure of the stable original seabed, thus breaking the gas hydrate reservoir formation conditions, then collecting the combustible ice accumulation scattered in the gap like sponge, by using of a set of the core technology of water, sand, gas separation we can eventually extract the natural gas.
Deputy Chief Engineer of China Geological Survey Agency and site commander of natural gas hydrate test mining Ye Jianliang said that the use of the formation of fluid extraction method, from a simple consideration of reducing the pressure into the attention of the withdrawal of fluid, by ensuring the extraction of fluid to achieve a stable pressure. Step-down program fully reflects the superiority, but also it is a key factor ensuring that we succeed in this test, it is an innovation from the theory to an innovative approach.