The Hindu Business Line : Gas hydrates: An inexhaustible energy source

India is sitting on prognosticated gas hydrate resources of 1,894 trillion cubic metres, which is over 1,700 times as much as the proven natural gas reserves with the country — of 1.08 trillion cubic metres.

To put the resource into perspective, India consumes 90 million standard cubic metres a day of natural gas. If the estimate of prognosticated gas hydrate reserves holds true, the energy source is infinite and can last several tens of thousands of years.

For sure, the way of getting natural gas from gas hydrates — frozen methane — is unknown to science as yet. But crack the challenge, you have solved the country’s energy problem.

Of course, ‘prognosticated reserves’ is an educated guess, but still there is little doubt that gas hydrates as a source of energy is very, very big — something that can permanently solve India’s energy problem.

Indeed, much of this has been known to the Indian hydrocarbon sector for a number of years. But the recent developments in the decade-old National Gas Hydrate Programme (NGHP), while being nowhere near breakthrough, are encouraging.

The recent conclusion of the first phase of NGHP led to the discovery of gas hydrate occurrences near the Andamans and in the Krishna-Godavari and Mahanadhi basins.

In December, the NGHP will start collecting more seismic data, drill a few more holes and collect more samples of the iced gas. The exercise will lead to a closer estimate of how much natural gas is available in the hydrates.

The real challenge begins then. “Nowhere in the world does the technology (for extracting gas out of hydrates) exist,” says Mr V. K. Sibal, Director General Hydrocarbons (DGH). “But we are confident of developing the technology.”

“Clearly, this is an area of technology leadership for India,” says Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Power.

“I don’t see it (gas from gas hydrates) coming in the next five years, but I am sure that in the next 10 years, it will be an important source of energy,” he told Business Line.

According to the DGH, the delay in the programme taking off was because of “non availability of a suitable deepwater drill-ship with onboard laboratories and experienced staff.”