Japan Rocks Energy World by Successfully Mining Unconventional Natural Gas

Two years after an earthquaked rocked Japan, scientists there are hitting back. They successfully mined “methane hydrates” from the Sea of Japan -- an effort that could supply the country with unconventional natural gas for decades to come. But it’s an expensive proposition that must now survive beyond the testing phase.

It’s big news worldwide. But it’s even more significant in Japan, which has endured the Fukushima nuclear crisis and which has no traditional fossil fuels of its own. If it reduces its nuclear component, it would then have to import oil and natural gas. Japan wants to commercialize its methane hydrates by 2018, which would give China, India and Korea the assist that they need to do the same. 

Wikipedia defines methane hydrates as methane that is trapped within a crystal structure of water that forms a solid similar to ice. Large deposits of it are found on ocean floors. 

“As an unconventional fossil fuel source, it has been investigated as a future source in the idea of peaking, but it is very difficult and very expensive on the commercial scale and only needed when other sources dry up,” says James Conca, director of the Center for Laboratory Sciences for RJLee Group in Washington State. “With the ability to obtain gas from other unconventional sources like gas shales, it is less needed, although research will continue, especially for those countries like Japan and Korea with no fossil or renewable resources to speak of.”

Conca, who engaged this reporter, goes on to say that the notion of “peak oil” never did consider the discovery of unconventional natural gas or oil. It was not possible when the theory gained traction in 2005. Diminishing supplies, of course, force humans to be creative and to figure out new ways to harness energy. Enter not just methane hydrates but also shales, heavy oils and tar sands. 

Shales and tar sands are actively produced and consumed. But the real issue with gas hydrates is their diffuse nature, which makes extracting them from the sea floor and in polar regions problematic, adds Conca. He does not think Japan will be able to commercialize production in five years. That’s because, natural gas is now cheap and spending huge resources to discover an alternative may not sell. 

“We have never done this, so I imagine it will take much longer to become commercial,” says Conca. “But I also imagine that it will happen.” 

Steady Pace

Japan’s successful demonstration occurred on Tuesday and 50 miles of its coast. Canada, meanwhile, has also gotten positive results from its tests performed in 2007 and 2008. But Canada has opted to postpone further development of hydrates, mainly because the costs are so high and because it has access to tar sands. 

That said, methane hydrate science is advancing at a steady pace, says the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Major progress has occurred over the last decade that is facilitating commercial-scale production, it says. Field-based studies and modeling are now taking place, it adds, all to capture just a sliver of the estimated at 700,000 trillion cubic feet. 

To put that perspective, the total U.S. natural gas resource, excluding hydrates, amounts to 2,074 trillion cubic feet -- numbers cited by the lab, which come from the Potential Gas Committee. If just a third of the hydrates that are found in the Gulf of Mexico are recoverable then that would double the total natural gas resources located here. If North Slope of Alaska is included in the evaluation, then add in another 85 trillion cubic feet, it says. 

“Methane hydrate is known to occur in both terrestrial and marine environments,” says the lab’s report. “Terrestrial deposits have been found in polar regions, hosted in sediments within and beneath the permafrost, while marine occurrences have been found mainly in sediments of the Earth’s outer continental margins.”

While the potential is vast, the technology lab emphasizes that the carbon in these deposits “far exceeds” anything in the atmosphere. Furthermore, methane is among the most potent greenhouse gases. One can extrapolate that as this possibility comes to fruition it would attract fierce opposition. Witness the protest against the building a Keystone Pipeline to transport Canadian tar sands as well as the immense concerns about shale gas fracking. 

The science, though, will plow forward. As it should. The potential for methane hydrates is too great, not just for the United States but also for the Asian countries that have less access to domestic fossil fuels. Successful tests are one thing. Commercialization is another. There’s still some time before this issue creates an international economic and environmental firestorm.

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