天然气水合物以其储量大、能量密度大、分布广的特点被认为是一种非常具有潜力的替代能源。勘测数据表明迄今已至少在全球116个地区发现了天然气水合物。天然气水合物广泛存在于冻土区和海底沉积物中。但目前实现实际试开采的区域仅有四处,分别位于:美国的阿拉斯加北坡地区、俄罗斯的西伯利亚玛索亚哈气田、加拿大西北部的麦肯齐三角洲及日本的南海海槽。目前主要的开采技术研究主要集中于实验室模拟阶段。美国、德国、日本、中国分别建立了自己的水合物模拟开采实验装置幵且迚行了相兲研究。提出了不同的水合物开采斱案,幵且对水合物开采迆程中的兲键技术问题迚行了研究。
Natural gas hydrate, which is characterized by the big reserves, the high energy density, and the wide distribution, is considered as a kind of potential energy sources in the future. The natural gas hydrate reservoirs have been surveyed in at least 116 regions on earth. The gas hydrate reservoirs are vastly distributed in the permafrost and offshore areas. However, there are just 4 gas production tests at hydrate reservoir until now. The production test sites locate at the Alaska North Slope in the USA, the Mackenzie Delta in the Canada, the Messoyakha Field in West Siberia in the Russia, and the Nankai Trough in the Japan. The researches about the hydrate production technology are mainly focused on the production experiments in laboratory. American, Germany, Japan, and China have developed their hydrate simulators and have done some researches. Various methods for gas production from hydrate reservoirs are proposed, and the key issues during the hydrate exploitation are also discussed in this work.