LNG gains political value as Japan's needs soar
Alaska looks to be key source if pipeline plan goes through
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20130103f1.html
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/ed20130103a1.html
EDITORIAL
New fossil fuel resources
While there have been heated discussions over what to do with Japan's
nuclear power generation, it is important for the government not only
to promote development of green energy sources but also to make
serious efforts to exploit new fossil fuel resources, especially in
the ocean, to operate the thermal power plants substituting for most
of Japan's nuclear power plants now being kept offline.
On Oct. 3, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. extracted shale oil on a
trial basis from 1,800-meter-deep bedrock in the Ayukawa gas field in
Akita Prefecture. But the estimated total shale oil deposits in the
prefecture is equivalent to slightly less than 10 percent of the oil
Japan consumes in one year. The Natural Resources and Energy Agency
says that the shale oil in the prefecture will not contribute much to
improving Japan's energy self-sufficiency.
In late November, a panel of the government's ocean policy
headquarters came up with an interim draft report for the nation's
new basic ocean policy. It said that the government should push the
development of methane hydrate resources in the seas around Japan by
setting numeral targets and timelines so that extracting methane from
methane hydrate becomes a viable industry by 2025.
In a low-temperature and pressure environment on the ocean bottom,
water molecules exist in a cagelike structure. This structure
confining methane molecules is methane hydrate. It is often called
"fiery ice" because it looks like ice. If dissociated from water,
methane can be collected as natural gas. It is estimated that methane
hydrate deposits in the oceans around Japan are equivalent to nearly
100 years of Japan's natural gas consumption.
It is not easy to extract methane from methane hydrate because the
latter exists in the form of solid matter. But Japan has succeeded in
getting methane from an underground methane hydrate layer in a test
in Canada. In the test, the pressure inside the layer was lowered to
let methane vaporize. Around mid-February in 2013, Japan, Oil, Gas
and Metals National Corp. plans to start a test to dissolve methane
hydrate in a layer some 1,300 meters below the sea surface off Atsumi
Peninsula of Aichi Prefecture.
Japan should develop methane hydrate resources in earnest. In doing
so, it should work out an efficient method for extracting methane
without causing environmental problems. Because Japan's territorial
waters plus its exclusive economic zone are the world's sixth
largest, serious efforts to exploit methane hydrate resources may
help to give it an advantageous position in negotiations on imports
of crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
At present, Japan's power companies must import a large amount of LNG
as fuel for thermal power plants. The government should accelerate
the development of methane hydrate resources by providing sufficient
financial support to the entities concerned.
The Japan Times: Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013
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