Abstract
Considering the fact that more than $97\%$ of fossil energy resources such as oil and natural gas needed in Korea rely on import, primary concern of the national economy is to secure future energy sources. Gas hydrates. which is non-conventional types of natural gas, distribute worldwide, especially in marine and permafrost Gas hydrates draw great attention recently as a new clean energy resources substituting conventional oil gas due to its presumed huge amount of volume reaching 10 trillion tons of gas and environmentally friendly characteristics. Results of preliminary survey by Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) showed that gas hydrates can be present in deep sea over 1,000m water depth in the East Sea. Gas hydrates can contribute to the rapidly increasing consumption of natural gas in Korea and achieve the self-support target by 2010 with $30\%$ of total natural gas demand. This study presents the potentialities and development prospects of gas hydrate as a future energy source.
