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tional vulnerabilities, such as inadequate capacity and rapid
demand growth. In many low-income countries with similar
lack of sufficient energy resources, supply and demand vul-
nerabilities overlap, making them especially insecure.
Enhanced energy security for regions can be achieved by great-
er use of domestic energy sources and by increasing the diver-
sity and resilience of energy systems. As an additional primary
energy source, gas hydrate development could increase the di-
versity and domestic share of primary energy in many parts of
the world, potentially decreasing import dependency.
Oil ranks ahead of electricity in terms of final energy con-
sumption and remains the world’s dominant form of energy
supply to the broader economy, making it essential to energy
security (IEA 2008; Chang and Liang Lee 2008). Supply
concerns for natural gas are mostly regional, due to the lim-
ited role of natural gas in global trade. However, the trade in
liquefied natural gas increasingly connects natural gas mar-
kets globally. The transition toward gas usage in electricity
generation could result in greater energy security concerns
because of the increased dependence on imports.
Gas hydrates appear to be widely distributed around the
world and are, therefore, very attractive to countries not natu-
rally endowed with conventional domestic energy resources.
As gas hydrate resources occur in proximity to many of the
world’s largest and most rapidly growing economies – such
as China, India, Japan, and the United States – they pro-
vide opportunities to improve energy security by reducing
these countries’ reliance on energy imports. Globally, this
increased measure of self-sufficiency can have a mitigating
effect on potential future discord resulting from competition
for access to external energy sources.
1.5.3
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Natural gas extrac-
tion and gathering activities lead directly to methane emis-
sions through leakages during drilling, completion and
stimulation activities. in transportation pipelines and other
infrastructure. The scale of these impacts in unconventional
gas extraction is not well known, nor is it clear whether gas
hydrate production will have similar effects. Monitoring and
assessment of such potential emissions, therefore, have been
identified as key priorities of initial gas hydrate field evalu-
ation programs (Arata
et al.
2011). Further, gas transmis-
sion and distribution introduce significant potential fugitive
methane emissions, and these issues would be no different
regardless of the whether the gas was derived from conven-
tional or unconventional sources.
When gas-hydrate-derived methane is combusted, it pro-
duces carbon dioxide, just as any hydrocarbon would. It will,
therefore, contribute to carbon emissions. However, the
amount of carbon dioxide per unit of energy released that
is produced during combustion of methane is as much as
40 per cent lower than that produced by coal or about 20
per cent lower than oil. Due to this efficiency, any net dis-
placement of higher greenhouse gas emitting fuels by meth-
ane will result in a net mitigation of global greenhouse gas
emissions (IEA 2011b). Natural gas gives off fewer pollutants
when burned, including less particulate matter, sulphur di-
oxide, and nitrogen oxides. In addition, it produces no waste
products that require management, such as coal ash or nu-
clear waste. Compared to conventional gas, gas originating
from hydrates contains even fewer impurities, such as hydro-
gen sulphide. This means that, of all natural gas sources, gas
hydrates require the least refining to produce consumable
natural gas (e.g. Collett et al, 2009).
Although gas hydrate resources may prove to be vast, they
are best considered as a potential option to ease the transi-
tion to future sustainable energy systems. Ideally, gas hydrate
development should not displace the necessary investment
in renewable energy technologies that will form the basis of
those future systems. If technologies to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions associated with expanded gas utilization can
be proven, it would be most beneficial to pursue parallel de-
velopments in fugitive emission reduction during produc-
tion and in carbon dioxide mitigation technologies.
Production research and development studies suggest that
gas hydrate deposits in both marine and permafrost settings
can be produced using techniques and methods already em-
ployed by the hydrocarbon industry worldwide (see Volume
2 Chapter 3). It is therefore reasonable to anticipate that the
environmental considerations will also be similar. The prin-