Japan is going to shoot a "methane hydrate gun" to impress Russia
“Not by hook or by crook” - this is how one can characterize the messages of the world media about the “breakthrough scientific achievements” of some countries in terms of extracting energy from a new type and reducing the role of Russia in supplying oil and gas to the world market.
We did not have time to debate about how the United States of America declared itself the main “shale revolutionaries”, promising to reduce the EU’s dependence on energy supplies from Russia, as information from the East loomed on the horizon. It turns out that the Japanese authorities are also not satisfied with the situation of high gas prices, and therefore are moving almost to large-scale production of so-called gas hydrates.
Earlier this month, information came from Tokyo that the Japanese corporation of oil, gas and metals conducted a detailed study of the subsoil under the ocean floor at a distance of 65-70 km from the Atsumi peninsula. According to the results of this study, it turned out that in these very depths there are concentrated impressive stocks of the so-called methane hydrate, which is a crystalline mass, somewhat reminiscent of friable snow. According to Japanese media reports, as early as this month, several leading energy companies are about to begin mining methane hydrate, from which ordinary methane will be subsequently released. By 2018, Japan intends to go into industrial production of methane from gas hydrate mined under the ocean floor.
A number of, let us say, opposition publications in Russia readily swallowed this information and have already noted with publications in which it is reported that Russia has no more than 5 years to feel relatively free as a supplier of energy to the world market. They say that in Europe, dear Russian gas will not be needed by anyone soon, since American and British companies are going to develop shale gas deposits in Ukraine, and the Japanese are coming from the East, who will finally poison the Russian economy with their methane hydrate. The obvious and difficult to explain information gloating in publications about the fact that “Russia is the end” makes you just shrug your shoulders and somewhat dissipate the impenetrable skepticism that marks the publications both in Russia and abroad.
No, the Japanese, of course, well done ... They abandoned nuclear energy, increased gas imports by 11% per year, and immediately declared that they were starting to extract their gas from crystalline gas hydrate. And what remains for them to do, no matter how they talk about the bright energy prospects - an exceptionally cloudless energy future through the use of their "homegrown" gas ...
The refusal of atomic energy, which was declared by the previous government of the Land of the Rising Sun after the terrible accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, was at first amicably supported by the Japanese and especially those who consider themselves to be the so-called “green league”. Japan is an environmentally friendly country with environmentally friendly production! What a wonderful slogan for a party that wants to get into the country's parliament.
However, it is one thing when the cabinet ministers and parliamentarians impose beautiful slogans on citizens, and quite another when the same citizens receive bills to pay for housing services, much larger than they came before the suspension of the Japanese NPPs. It is worth recalling that the share of nuclear power plants in Japan in 2010 was almost 30,6% of the energy market, and after the program to reduce the role of nuclear energy in the life of the Rising Sun, the burden of electricity generation fell on gas power plants. Now the market share of gas power plants in Japan is 59,6%.
When the average Japanese paid for the same kilowatt * hour of electricity by almost 30% more than they paid two years ago, with inflation below 0,3% per year, you can imagine how such accounts were perceived by ordinary people in the country. And if we take into account that about 43% of the total electricity produced in Japan is taken up by industry, the government had to take extraordinary measures so that Japanese products could remain competitive in regional and global markets. The extraordinary nature of the measures was that for the first time in many years the state actually directly decided to intervene in the economy, having poured into it subsidies. However, for Japan this could not continue indefinitely, and therefore the new government of the country spoke that it was time to defreeze the nuclear power plant. They say that not all these stations are so dangerous ... You can think of something to increase their protection from the elements ... The Minister of Economy, Industry and Trade of Japan, Mr. Motegi, even said that as soon as the check revealed the safety of the reactors, they would immediately be decontaminated. But before it, the authorities swore that until 2040, not a single reactor "would poison the vastness of the country."
Obviously, after the Minister’s words, the reactors will be recognized as safe. How could it be otherwise! After all, the Japanese government is not going to continue to plunge into energy problems. Here, as they say, not to the environment ...
For obvious reasons, the Japanese business took the information about the possible “defrosting” of nuclear power plants with enthusiasm, and therefore the shares of a number of Japanese companies gained some weight. At about the same time, Tokyo announced its views on the very gas hydrates with which, reportedly, the subsoil resources are rich so that this gas may be enough for Japan for the next 10 years.
Such data came to Russia, as if emphasizing that if Russia still wants to supply gas to the Country of the Rising Sun, then it is necessary to think about a real price reduction. However, one should not forget that Tokyo buys energy resources not only in Russia. Our country still provides no more than 9% of Japanese gas imports. The remaining volumes are assumed by other suppliers, in particular, Qatar and the USA.
The Japanese authorities realize that the longer they refuse to use atomic energy, the more dependent they will be on foreign energy suppliers. First of all, Tokyo is concerned that a further increase in gas purchases in Russia may allow Moscow to exert pressure on Japanese authorities on the South Kuriles. As the saying goes, you will attack the South Kuril "corns", turn off the gas ... And go ahead and compensate the deprivation of 9% ...
This state of affairs is clearly not satisfied with the Japanese authorities, and therefore, in addition to statements about the possible resumption of the work of most Japanese nuclear power plants, the theme of Japanese methane hydrate is being discussed. However, the difficulty for the Japanese is that the extraction of gas hydrates is associated with drilling 300-400-meter wells at an ocean depth of more than 1 km. The pressure during such mining will be enormous, which can lead to clearly negative consequences. There is another problem. The extraction of methane hydrate is not just pumping through a pipe, but raising crystals to the surface of the ocean. So far there is no more or less acceptable technology that allows raising the gas hydrate to the surface without loss of the gas itself. Risks to pull out, shall we say, empty net is too great. Moreover, the loss of methane from the subsoil to the surface through a kilometer thick seawater will lead to an increase in methane concentration in the water itself, which can lead to a real environmental catastrophe, which will be no less negative for the environment than the problems with nuclear power plants. Fukushima.
Experts from the World Wildlife Fund have already expressed to the Japanese authorities their concerns about plans for large-scale methane production of methane hydrate. In particular, WWC reports that methane is a greenhouse gas, and a local increase in its concentration in the ocean can lead to an increase in temperature and the disappearance of marine plants and animals. WWC specialists recall the research on the so-called Permian extinction, when the release of methane from the subsoil led to tragic consequences for living organisms (about 95% of all living organisms died out 251 a million years ago). Those events, one of the scientists even christened a shot from a methane hydrate gun.
However, when the issue of economic security is at stake, all fears of wildlife defenders are perceived as paranoia or unscientific fantasy. And because in Japan, while trying not to dwell on the fact that Tokyo does not have safe technologies for the production of gas hydrate. The main thing is to conduct high-quality PR, so that the public does not know about the side effects of the extraction of such raw materials. Moreover, the Japanese do not say that the studies of methane hydrate and its extraction were carried out even 40 years ago in the USSR under the direction of VG Vasiliev. Those studies led scientists to conclude that it is possible to extract methane hydrate, but it will only be too expensive to cost, and in addition, the risks of such production are too great.
Today, Tokyo is trying to say that during 40 years of research on a more or less safe technology for extracting gas hydrate from the ocean has not been developed, and in a couple of months, Japanese experts will solve this problem ... There is no doubt that production will begin, but we will only find out we are about its consequences - a big question. After all, even about Fukushima from Tokyo for a long time was said that this was not an accident at all, but a slight misunderstanding ...
We did not have time to debate about how the United States of America declared itself the main “shale revolutionaries”, promising to reduce the EU’s dependence on energy supplies from Russia, as information from the East loomed on the horizon. It turns out that the Japanese authorities are also not satisfied with the situation of high gas prices, and therefore are moving almost to large-scale production of so-called gas hydrates.
Earlier this month, information came from Tokyo that the Japanese corporation of oil, gas and metals conducted a detailed study of the subsoil under the ocean floor at a distance of 65-70 km from the Atsumi peninsula. According to the results of this study, it turned out that in these very depths there are concentrated impressive stocks of the so-called methane hydrate, which is a crystalline mass, somewhat reminiscent of friable snow. According to Japanese media reports, as early as this month, several leading energy companies are about to begin mining methane hydrate, from which ordinary methane will be subsequently released. By 2018, Japan intends to go into industrial production of methane from gas hydrate mined under the ocean floor.
A number of, let us say, opposition publications in Russia readily swallowed this information and have already noted with publications in which it is reported that Russia has no more than 5 years to feel relatively free as a supplier of energy to the world market. They say that in Europe, dear Russian gas will not be needed by anyone soon, since American and British companies are going to develop shale gas deposits in Ukraine, and the Japanese are coming from the East, who will finally poison the Russian economy with their methane hydrate. The obvious and difficult to explain information gloating in publications about the fact that “Russia is the end” makes you just shrug your shoulders and somewhat dissipate the impenetrable skepticism that marks the publications both in Russia and abroad.
No, the Japanese, of course, well done ... They abandoned nuclear energy, increased gas imports by 11% per year, and immediately declared that they were starting to extract their gas from crystalline gas hydrate. And what remains for them to do, no matter how they talk about the bright energy prospects - an exceptionally cloudless energy future through the use of their "homegrown" gas ...
The refusal of atomic energy, which was declared by the previous government of the Land of the Rising Sun after the terrible accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, was at first amicably supported by the Japanese and especially those who consider themselves to be the so-called “green league”. Japan is an environmentally friendly country with environmentally friendly production! What a wonderful slogan for a party that wants to get into the country's parliament.
However, it is one thing when the cabinet ministers and parliamentarians impose beautiful slogans on citizens, and quite another when the same citizens receive bills to pay for housing services, much larger than they came before the suspension of the Japanese NPPs. It is worth recalling that the share of nuclear power plants in Japan in 2010 was almost 30,6% of the energy market, and after the program to reduce the role of nuclear energy in the life of the Rising Sun, the burden of electricity generation fell on gas power plants. Now the market share of gas power plants in Japan is 59,6%.
When the average Japanese paid for the same kilowatt * hour of electricity by almost 30% more than they paid two years ago, with inflation below 0,3% per year, you can imagine how such accounts were perceived by ordinary people in the country. And if we take into account that about 43% of the total electricity produced in Japan is taken up by industry, the government had to take extraordinary measures so that Japanese products could remain competitive in regional and global markets. The extraordinary nature of the measures was that for the first time in many years the state actually directly decided to intervene in the economy, having poured into it subsidies. However, for Japan this could not continue indefinitely, and therefore the new government of the country spoke that it was time to defreeze the nuclear power plant. They say that not all these stations are so dangerous ... You can think of something to increase their protection from the elements ... The Minister of Economy, Industry and Trade of Japan, Mr. Motegi, even said that as soon as the check revealed the safety of the reactors, they would immediately be decontaminated. But before it, the authorities swore that until 2040, not a single reactor "would poison the vastness of the country."
Obviously, after the Minister’s words, the reactors will be recognized as safe. How could it be otherwise! After all, the Japanese government is not going to continue to plunge into energy problems. Here, as they say, not to the environment ...
For obvious reasons, the Japanese business took the information about the possible “defrosting” of nuclear power plants with enthusiasm, and therefore the shares of a number of Japanese companies gained some weight. At about the same time, Tokyo announced its views on the very gas hydrates with which, reportedly, the subsoil resources are rich so that this gas may be enough for Japan for the next 10 years.
Such data came to Russia, as if emphasizing that if Russia still wants to supply gas to the Country of the Rising Sun, then it is necessary to think about a real price reduction. However, one should not forget that Tokyo buys energy resources not only in Russia. Our country still provides no more than 9% of Japanese gas imports. The remaining volumes are assumed by other suppliers, in particular, Qatar and the USA.
The Japanese authorities realize that the longer they refuse to use atomic energy, the more dependent they will be on foreign energy suppliers. First of all, Tokyo is concerned that a further increase in gas purchases in Russia may allow Moscow to exert pressure on Japanese authorities on the South Kuriles. As the saying goes, you will attack the South Kuril "corns", turn off the gas ... And go ahead and compensate the deprivation of 9% ...
This state of affairs is clearly not satisfied with the Japanese authorities, and therefore, in addition to statements about the possible resumption of the work of most Japanese nuclear power plants, the theme of Japanese methane hydrate is being discussed. However, the difficulty for the Japanese is that the extraction of gas hydrates is associated with drilling 300-400-meter wells at an ocean depth of more than 1 km. The pressure during such mining will be enormous, which can lead to clearly negative consequences. There is another problem. The extraction of methane hydrate is not just pumping through a pipe, but raising crystals to the surface of the ocean. So far there is no more or less acceptable technology that allows raising the gas hydrate to the surface without loss of the gas itself. Risks to pull out, shall we say, empty net is too great. Moreover, the loss of methane from the subsoil to the surface through a kilometer thick seawater will lead to an increase in methane concentration in the water itself, which can lead to a real environmental catastrophe, which will be no less negative for the environment than the problems with nuclear power plants. Fukushima.
Experts from the World Wildlife Fund have already expressed to the Japanese authorities their concerns about plans for large-scale methane production of methane hydrate. In particular, WWC reports that methane is a greenhouse gas, and a local increase in its concentration in the ocean can lead to an increase in temperature and the disappearance of marine plants and animals. WWC specialists recall the research on the so-called Permian extinction, when the release of methane from the subsoil led to tragic consequences for living organisms (about 95% of all living organisms died out 251 a million years ago). Those events, one of the scientists even christened a shot from a methane hydrate gun.
However, when the issue of economic security is at stake, all fears of wildlife defenders are perceived as paranoia or unscientific fantasy. And because in Japan, while trying not to dwell on the fact that Tokyo does not have safe technologies for the production of gas hydrate. The main thing is to conduct high-quality PR, so that the public does not know about the side effects of the extraction of such raw materials. Moreover, the Japanese do not say that the studies of methane hydrate and its extraction were carried out even 40 years ago in the USSR under the direction of VG Vasiliev. Those studies led scientists to conclude that it is possible to extract methane hydrate, but it will only be too expensive to cost, and in addition, the risks of such production are too great.
Today, Tokyo is trying to say that during 40 years of research on a more or less safe technology for extracting gas hydrate from the ocean has not been developed, and in a couple of months, Japanese experts will solve this problem ... There is no doubt that production will begin, but we will only find out we are about its consequences - a big question. After all, even about Fukushima from Tokyo for a long time was said that this was not an accident at all, but a slight misunderstanding ...
Information