Focus on the Development of Natural Gas Hydrate in China

Natural gas hydrate, also known as combustible ice, and mainly composed of methane, is identified as a potential clean energy for the 21st century. Due to its large reserves, gas hydrate can ease problems caused by energy resource shortage and has gained attention around the world. In this paper, we focus on the exploration and development of gas hydrate as well as discussing its status and future development trend in China and abroad. We then analyze its opportunities and challenges in China from four aspects, resource, technology, economy and policy, with five forces model and Politics Economics Society Technology method. The results show China has abundance gas hydrate resource; however, backward technologies and inadequate investment have seriously hindered the future development of gas hydrate; thus, China should establish relevant cooperation framework and intuitional arrangement to attract more investment as well as breaking through technical difficulties to commercialization gas hydrate as soon as possible.