South Korea will begin exploration of gas hydrate deposits in the East Sea this year to determine the potential yields from the future energy source, the government said on Wednesday (Mar. 15).
Exploration of the sea bottom in a 400-square-kilometer area will be conducted this year, and excavation is scheduled to bring up samples for analysis, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said.
The area, 130 kilometers off the coast of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, is estimated to have a high concentration of gas hydrates, it said.
Gas hydrates are usually found deep underwater where cold temperatures and extreme pressure cause natural gas to condense into semisolid . When brought to the surface it can be used as liquid natural gas (LNG).
The government has allocated 15.3 billion won (US15.6 million) to support the detailed exploration and conduct tests on samples collected this year, Vice Industry Minister Lee Won-geol said. He said concurrent research and development will focus on extraction methods.
At present, there are considerable technological obstacles to bringing up the gas hydrates so they can be used commercially, Lee said.
There is no industrial process to bring up the hydrates, so South Korea can become a leader in this field, he said. The United States, Japan and Canada have all expressed an interest in gas hydrate exploration.
South Korea started examination of gas hydrate deposits around the Korean Peninsula in earnest last July and determined there may be up to 600 million tons of the resource that can be used by the country for 30 years.
