Chinese oilmen were the first in the world to extract "combustible ice" from the bottom of the South China Sea - natural gas hydrate.

This was announced on Thursday, May 18, by the Central Television of China with reference to the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China, reports lenta. En.

"This will be as big a development as the earlier shale revolution in the US. As a result, the methods of using energy in the future will undergo a transformation, "said Deputy Director of Geological Research of the Ministry of Li Jinfa.

He noted that in the development of the theoretical base and technologies, China in this direction achieved "unprecedented success", as a result of which the country took the leading position in the world for the production of "fuel ice".

Samples were raised from a depth of more than 1.2 kilometers, the very 200-meter underwater well was 285 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong. In just eight days of operation, 120 cubic meters of "combustible ice" were mined, the methane content in it is 99.5%.

One cubic meter of hydrate is equivalent to 160 cubic meters of natural gas in the gaseous state (on 100 liters of gas the car can travel 300 kilometers, while on 100 liters of "fuel ice" - 50 thousand. Kilometers).

Work on the extraction of natural resources is being carried out by other countries, in particular Canada and Japan, but so far only China managed to extract a sample of hydrate from the seabed.

Japan's JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation) in March 2013 announced the extraction of methane from the "combustible ice" near the Atsumi peninsula,. At the same time, the company did not raise hydrate samples from the seabed, natural gas was pumped upstream.