Breakthrough fuels hopes that fire ice is viable energy source

ON THURSDAY, THE MINISTRY OF LAND AND RESOURCES announced that China had become the first country to viably extract gas from methane hydrates. Xinhua News Agency commented on Friday:

This month's successful trial operations in test drilling and production in the South China Sea extracted an average of 16,000 cubic meters of gas per day in the Shenhu area of the South China Sea. This marks a major step toward the commercial use of so-called flammable ice or fire ice, which presents as ice crystals with natural methane gas locked inside.

Achievements like this largely rest with major breakthroughs in key technologies such as deep-sea exploration. As other big powers put more efforts into maritime research and the exploitation of marine resources China has no reason to stand aside and it has now claimed a leading position in the exploitation of fire ice.