China extracts record amount of natural gas from Gas Hydrates in South China Sea

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

A break from the global gloom and doom and despair.  Some good news from China.

The current global glut of oil & gas and LNG will not persist forever.  While any "world record" news reported by Chinese government remains suspect (in my opinion), their push to commercially extract Methane Hydrates is looking promising.

China's bullying "9 dash line" claims to virtually the entire South China Sea comes into clearer perspective, when viewed through a hydrocarbon resource prism.  China wants to lay claim to all of the natural resources in the South China Sea, and steamroll over other countries littoral claims to the South China Sea.

China extracts 861,400 cubic metres of natural gas from ‘flammable ice’ in South China Sea

• Volume of fuel extracted from gas hydrates is a new world record, natural resources ministry says
• Month-long trial also sets a ‘solid technical foundation for commercial exploitation’, it says

China said on Thursday it extracted 861,400 cubic metres of natural gas from gas hydrates found in the South China Sea during a month-long trial that ended last week.

The production process, which ran from February 17 to March 18, also set two world records: one for the largest total volume extracted and another for the most produced – 287,000 cubic metres – on a single day, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on its website.

The gas was extracted from an area in the north of the disputed waterway, and from a depth of about 1,225 metres, it said.

China conducted its first operation to extract natural gas from gas hydrates in the South China Sea in 2017, achieving 300,000 cubic metres over a 60-day period.

The success of the latest trial set a “solid technical foundation for commercial exploitation”, the ministry said, adding that China was the first country in the world to exploit gas hydrates using a horizontal well-drilling technique.

Also known as flammable ice, gas hydrates are icelike solids composed mostly of methane. According to figures from the US Department of Energy, one cubic metre of gas hydrate releases 164 cubic metres of conventional natural gas once extracted.  ...

 

[markslawson + 1,061]

15 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

A break from the global gloom and doom and despair.  Some good news from China.

I've got no problem with the article and it is certainly an interesting new technology, but I'd make a couple of points.

Basically its a test program to prove they can do it, and that's fair enough, but as the article notes its not yet commercial compared to the other means of extracting gas. And heaps of LNG is coming on line. Australia beat out Qatar last year as the largest exporter of the stuff, with the US building up to challenge the Aus lead and Qatar is building more capacity.. although the Chinese have certainly been making a nuisance of themselves in the South China sea, they may not need to hydrate resource for some time. 

Anyway, good article..   

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

9 minutes ago, markslawson said:

although the Chinese have certainly been making a nuisance of themselves in the South China sea, they may not need to hydrate resource for some time. 

Anyway, good article..   

Just imagine an "energy independent" China.  It would be a game changer.

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

15 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

The current global glut of oil & gas and LNG will not persist forever. 

Could you give me a guarantee on that, Tom?

It's looking pretty bad out there. 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

8 minutes ago, Gerry Maddoux said:

Could you give me a guarantee on that, Tom?

It's looking pretty bad out there. 

Nothing stays the same.  The world will continue using oil & gas and LNG for many more decades.

Back around 2016, I predicted the global glut of LNG would probably last until 2022 or so.  Might have to stretch that out to 2024 or so.  

[ronwagn + 6,290]

51 minutes ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Just imagine an "energy independent" China.  It would be a game changer.

That would certainly allow us to use our own energy for many decades and eventually our gas hydrates. We can depend on China to cut coal use when it runs out or becomes too expensive. Probably not for a hundred years. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

3 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Nothing stays the same.  The world will continue using oil & gas and LNG for many more decades.

Back around 2016, I predicted the global glut of LNG would probably last until 2022 or so.  Might have to stretch that out to 2024 or so.  

With all the new finds and producers and lack of transportation usage i would think it will be cheap for decades. Tunisia now. Right across from Italy.

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

Glossed over a bit in the article is that China literally stole the hydrates by being the bully on the block. No where near their economic exclusion zone. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

The idea of producing methane hydrates has been around for decades. The damn things used to form in deepwater blowout preventers and freeze them up.

What you need to realize is that methane hydrates form in a narrow pressure/temperature window. If you produce it incorrectly, and alter the pressure/temperature regime, those hydrates could ‘flash’ and instantly revert from a solid to a gas. As Tom pointed out, the gas would be volumetrically 164 times greater than the solid. If this occurs below the seabed, the seabed could slump resulting in a tsunami, among other things.

As an aside, it was an American consultant named Wyatt who designed China’s first methane hydrate well in around 2016....

[frankfurter + 562]

5 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Just imagine an "energy independent" China.  It would be a game changer.

and in more ways than I think you can imagine.  :-)    wow, YOU saying something good coming out of China?  I nearly fell off my chair.  

[0R0 + 6,251]

5 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Just imagine an "energy independent" China.  It would be a game changer.

They may just not care about the world then and lock themselves up. The main purpose of foreign trade for them had been to trade for resources. Particularly oil Nat Gas for transport and agrichem and copper high quality iron ore. It all depends now on whether they consider their infrastructure complete and are willing to let go further improvement of their diet if they are energy independent. Even their hegemonic dream is related to assuring energy flow. 

[frankfurter + 562]

45 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

The idea of producing methane hydrates has been around for decades. The damn things used to form in deepwater blowout preventers and freeze them up.

What you need to realize is that methane hydrates form in a narrow pressure/temperature window. If you produce it incorrectly, and alter the pressure/temperature regime, those hydrates could ‘flash’ and instantly revert from a solid to a gas. As Tom pointed out, the gas would be volumetrically 164 times greater than the solid. If this occurs below the seabed, the seabed could slump resulting in a tsunami, among other things.

As an aside, it was an American consultant named Wyatt who designed China’s first methane hydrate well in around 2016....

despite the xenophobic spirit of your words, the well proves people can indeed cooperate with one another. 

Edited March 28, 2020 by frankfurter

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Do you have any idea what ‘xenophobic’ means? Let me help you out:

having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

"xenophobic attitudes"

 

where do you pull ‘xenophobic’ out of my post? The original thread was touting a ‘new world record’, I was just giving credit where it was due.

 

But since you bring it up, when Wyatt showed up in China to begin his consulting contract, the Chinese decided that since they were employing him, that by default they should have access to HIS laptop! Keep in mind that Wyatt had proprietary information, from previous contracts, with other companies on that laptop. They were essentially trying to steal intellectual property.

 

At the end, he refused to let them copy the contents of his laptop, but he did design their well.

 

As you say, just goes to show that if we cooperate, we can work together.

 

You need to get out of your Mother’s basement more often...

Edited March 28, 2020 by Douglas Buckland
Typo

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

4 hours ago, frankfurter said:

and in more ways than I think you can imagine.  🙂   wow, YOU saying something good coming out of China?  I nearly fell off my chair.  

In a nutshell, my issue is with the CCP, not with China.  Similar to Iran, my issue is with the Mullah dictators, not with the Iranian people.  I've been to China 7 times, and I've been invited many times to Iran and Russia by people I know and worked with.  Governments are generally the problem, not the people.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

5 hours ago, frankfurter said:

and in more ways than I think you can imagine.  🙂   wow, YOU saying something good coming out of China?  I nearly fell off my chair.  

Who said that was good?

[NickW + 2,714]

6 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

The idea of producing methane hydrates has been around for decades. The damn things used to form in deepwater blowout preventers and freeze them up.

What you need to realize is that methane hydrates form in a narrow pressure/temperature window. If you produce it incorrectly, and alter the pressure/temperature regime, those hydrates could ‘flash’ and instantly revert from a solid to a gas. As Tom pointed out, the gas would be volumetrically 164 times greater than the solid. If this occurs below the seabed, the seabed could slump resulting in a tsunami, among other things.

As an aside, it was an American consultant named Wyatt who designed China’s first methane hydrate well in around 2016....

On of the theories beyond mystery ship disappearances* is where a huge outgassing of Methane occurs causing the ship to sink in a gasified water column. 

* Bermuda triangle, Devils Triangle (South of japan) etc

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Even in the case of an ‘around the shoe’ blowout under a floating drilling rig, studies showed that you only lose about 16% of the vessels buoyancy. Needless to say that this would depend on the volume and delivery rate of gas at the seabed, but this was modeled on realistic rates and volumes expected from a gas reservoir.

In the early days, before ‘deepwater’, dynamically positioned rigs, and the rigs were moored on an 8-point mooring system, the cause of sinking was downflooding.

As the gas entered the water below the rig and headed to the surface, it cause a ‘dome’ on the surface of the ocean underneath the rig. The rig would then ‘slide’ down one side of the dome until the anchor chains on the opposite side went taut.

At this point, as the rig would tend to ‘lean’ into the tension of the tight anchor chains. Depending on the geometry of the situation, the sea could now be running over the main deck. If the rig wasn’t ‘buttoned up’, water would the find it’s way into the inside of the columns and machinery spaces. This loss of buoyancy is termed downflooding and if serious enough would sink the rig.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

7 hours ago, frankfurter said:

and in more ways than I think you can imagine.  🙂   wow, YOU saying something good coming out of China?  I nearly fell off my chair.  

 

Babylon Bee satire, for your amusement.

China: 'We've Completely Cured Coronavirus And Everything Is Fine Here And No One Is Allowed In To Check'

BEIJING—President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement to a few invited members of the press. “Everything is great here!” he said. “In fact... um... we’ve completely eradicated Coronavirus here -- cured it even. Yep, cured it. We found a cure. But it... um... only works on the Chinese so we can’t give it to you. Yeah, that’s the ticket. China-only cure; can’t share it. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?"

During the press conference, a lot of commotion was heard outside, such as shouting and explosions. Xi eventually remarked on it. “What you hear outside is... um... a party! Yep, that’s what it is. A big party. Everything is so great, we’re having one big party. But no one else is allowed in the country to see it because... it’s a private party. China-only party. But it’s got... um... dragons and fireworks -- you know, typical Chinese stuff. I’m sure you can all imagine it and don’t need to see it. So anyway, we defeated the Coronavirus -- which was made by the U.S. military and has nothing to do with us -- and everything is great and we’re having a party, but you all have to get out now and leave us to it and stop saying I look like Winnie the Pooh because I don’t -- I look like Tom Cruise.” Xi then ended the press conference and took no questions since he “explained everything perfectly.”  ...

 

[frankfurter + 562]

18 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

Do you have any idea what ‘xenophobic’ means? Let me help you out:

having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

"xenophobic attitudes"

 

where do you pull ‘xenophobic’ out of my post? The original thread was touting a ‘new world record’, I was just giving credit where it was due.

 

But since you bring it up, when Wyatt showed up in China to begin his consulting contract, the Chinese decided that since they were employing him, that by default they should have access to HIS laptop! Keep in mind that Wyatt had proprietary information, from previous contracts, with other companies on that laptop. They were essentially trying to steal intellectual property.

 

At the end, he refused to let them copy the contents of his laptop, but he did design their well.

 

As you say, just goes to show that if we cooperate, we can work together.

 

You need to get out of your Mother’s basement more often...

If your story is true, then Wyatt was fully justified in his actions.

You may be surprised to know the American "authorities" confiscated my notebook upon arrival at La Guardia 3 months ago, without arrest charges, without explanation, and subjected me to a very invasive physical strip inspection. I was travelling with a citizen passport with a legal visa and other bona fide identification papers, and have no criminal record anywhere, not even a parking fine in the past 20 years.  My luggage had no drugs, no chemicals, no liquids, had only 1 power adapter, and was brand new prior to boarding: it was returned to me in unusable condition.  The 'detention' lasted 8 hours.  My notebook was not returned.  Thus, it was stolen, along with my own proprietary information.  You may be further surprised to know, NOBODY can challenge such inspections, nor seek redress. The 'authorities' are above any and all laws. I was informed my choice was either to accept peacefully, or be arrested.  I was very surprised to learn the 'authorities' can arrest anyone without reasonable suspicion and without due process. 

Note: the CCP did not subject Wyatt to anything like I encountered in 'murica. 

 

 

[frankfurter + 562]

12 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

 

Babylon Bee satire, for your amusement.

China: 'We've Completely Cured Coronavirus And Everything Is Fine Here And No One Is Allowed In To Check'

BEIJING—President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement to a few invited members of the press. “Everything is great here!” he said. “In fact... um... we’ve completely eradicated Coronavirus here -- cured it even. Yep, cured it. We found a cure. But it... um... only works on the Chinese so we can’t give it to you. Yeah, that’s the ticket. China-only cure; can’t share it. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?"

During the press conference, a lot of commotion was heard outside, such as shouting and explosions. Xi eventually remarked on it. “What you hear outside is... um... a party! Yep, that’s what it is. A big party. Everything is so great, we’re having one big party. But no one else is allowed in the country to see it because... it’s a private party. China-only party. But it’s got... um... dragons and fireworks -- you know, typical Chinese stuff. I’m sure you can all imagine it and don’t need to see it. So anyway, we defeated the Coronavirus -- which was made by the U.S. military and has nothing to do with us -- and everything is great and we’re having a party, but you all have to get out now and leave us to it and stop saying I look like Winnie the Pooh because I don’t -- I look like Tom Cruise.” Xi then ended the press conference and took no questions since he “explained everything perfectly.”  ...

 

frankly, I suspect you are a rather educated person, and thus I suspect this feeble attempt at humour is far beneath you. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

“If your story is true, then Wyatt was fully justified in his actions.”

And if your story is true (and accurate), then you have a point.

Is this now a ‘pissing contest’ where we see who has the worst experience to post?

“Note: the CCP did not subject Wyatt to anything like I encountered in 'murica.“

I never indicated that Wyatt had an issue with the CCP, his issue was with the national oil company that contracted him.

What is with your use of the term ‘murica’, I am not familiar with this location?