Environmental safety and low velocity of the development of submarine natural gas hydrate with examples of test production in South China Sea

As a clean energy, natural gas hydrate should be developed and utilised. The greatest concerns for natural gas hydrate development being still at a preliminary stage are that natural gas hydrate development could cause explosions or environmental disasters. This manuscript addresses these concerns, analyses the principles of natural gas hydrate development, conducts a survey on natural gas hydrate development practice and points out that the most important physical process of natural gas hydrate development is gasification. Restricted by the heat supply speed of the stratum, the development of natural gas hydrate is relatively slow, and large-scale and uncontrollable gasification will not happen. Its development will also not seriously influence marine water, ecological environment or the atmosphere. Conventional problems as seabed collapse and seafloor landslide may occur, but, overall, natural gas hydrate development is safe. These views are consistent with two experiments conducted by the Chinese government in the South China Sea.