State-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, or Jogmec, plans to conduct a second testing round for offshore production of methane hydrate from around late April, aiming to run the tests non-stop for up to a month.
This will be the world’s second offshore methane hydrate production test after Japan produced 120,000 cubic meters, or 20,000 cu m/day, of gas from methane hydrate in a first, six-day offshore production test in the Pacific Ocean in March 2013. That trial followed more than a decade of field research as well as testing of various technologies.
The key objectives for the upcoming production test are to evaluate whether Japan can produce gas from methane hydrate using the decreasing pressure system stably for a given period, with a view to commercializing output in the future
