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India, Russia to jointly explore alternative source of energy

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV.7. The coming visit of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to Moscow would mark a watershed in the history of India-Russia scientific collaboration, as the two countries are slated to sign an agreement to set up a joint R&D centre to explore the possibilities of tapping gas hydrates as an alternative source of energy from the seas around the country.

The centre, to be set up at the National Institute of Ocean Technology at Chennai, would seek to develop science and technology for detection, quantification and subsequently harvest of gas hydrates that are estimated to be present in abundance within the exclusive economic zone of India.

Gas hydrates, which are ice-like crystalline accumulations formed mainly from methane and water are expected to emerge as a potential alternative energy source particularly in the context of the alarming rates of decline in the reserves of fossil fuels in recent decades.

According to conservative estimates, gas hydrate resources across the world may contain organic carbon totalling 10,000 billion tonnes. In contrast, in terms of carbon content, the global reserves of all conventional fossil fuels put together is estimated much lower at 8,780 billion tonnes.

Several countries have been working on developing techniques for exploiting gas hydrate, particularly as there was no major major oil discovery in the last decade across the world.

But gas hydrate exploration is still a nascent science.

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