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Korea has discovered a large gas hydrate deposit estimated at around 600 million tons in the Ulleung Basin off the east coast. A possible future source of energy, gas hydrate is considered a "clean" fuel because it emits only about 24 percent as much carbon dioxide as fossil fuels.
Still, it will be a long time before gas hydrate can be commercialized because no country in the world has been able to develop a cost-effective technology to extract methane from it on a mass scale.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy said Thursday that it discovered the gas hydrate deposit at the bottom of the sea 135 km northeast of the port city of Pohang after a 54-day-long search. Exploratory drilling started Sept. 25 in three sea areas in the Ulleung Basin over 1,800 m deep. The deposit is about 130 m thick, which is much greater than deposits found in Japan, India and China. Another gas hydrate deposit of about 100 m was found nine km north of the first, and a third deposit, just one meter thick, was found 42 km south of the first.
"The discovery of the gas hydrate deposits confirms the possibility that the Ulleung Basin may contain an enormous amount of gas hydrate over a large area," Vice Commerce Minister Lee Jae-hoon said. "Korea has become the fifth country to locate gas hydrate in deep waters after the U.S., Japan, India and China."
The government believes that the estimated 600 million tons of gas hydrate in the region would be enough to meet the country's gas needs for 30 years, if commercialized. With the second phase of the project slated to begin next year, the government is planning to focus on developing the technology to commercialize gas hydrate with a view to mass development around 2015.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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