In the interest of full disclosure I may be a tad bit biased when it comes to methane hydrate. You see, for the last seven years I worked with members of the hydrates research community and assisted in ship-based labs on two hydrate-related expeditions offshore India and Alaska’s North Slope. I have held in the palm of my hand cold ice as it melted into hot flames of escaping methane. It is the million dollar parlor trick that is a sight to see on the very rare occasion it is performed.

So saying that I was “excited” about the recent announcement from Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corp. that it had successfully extracted gas from offshore hydrate deposits during an experimental production test off the coasts of Atsumi and Shima peninsulas is a bit of an understatement. I was ecstatic.

For Japan, the world’s leading importer of LNG, the test puts it another step closer to having a domestic energy resource to call its own. According to the company’s press release, there are about 40 Tcf of methane hydrate in place in the eastern Nankai trough – an amount that is equivalent to about 11 years of the country’s LNG consumption.

“Methane hydrate-concentrated zones, the zones where methane hydrate is concentrated and which are expected to be possible targets for future resource development, occupy one-sixth of the total area and contain the amount of methane hydrate equivalent to approximately 20 Tcf of methane gas, which is a half of the total amount of methane hydrate in place,” the company said in the press release.

Methane hydrate is stable in conditions where low temperatures and high pressures occur simultaneously. A slight change in either condition will cause the hydrate to become unstable, resulting in dissociation, or the release of the molecule from its icy cage.

According to the company, production of the gas came after a flow test applied a depressurization method to dissociate methane hydrate. A test conducted in 2001 circulated hot water to dissociate the hydrate by raising the temperature. A second test from 2007 to 2008 tested the depressurization method by decreasing the temperature.

Future plans call for a second offshore production test in Phase 2 and the establishment of a technological platform for future commercial production in Phase 3, which is scheduled for 2016 to 2018.

The test also was significant in that it represents the first successful production of gas from marine hydrate deposits. Previous tests were conducted onshore with successful production of gas from permafrost hydrate deposits in Canada and Alaska.

In a world market currently flush with gas, why is methane hydrates research significant? Methane hydrates research today lays the groundwork for future successes much in the same way that shale gas research 30 years ago did for development today.