Iran discovers massive gas hydrate reserves in Sea of Oman

Iran’s Research Institute of the Petroleum Industry (RIPI) says it has discovered giant gas hydrate reserves in the country’s territorial waters in the Sea of Oman.

RIPI project manager for exploration of hydrate gas reserves in Sea of Oman, Naser Keshavarz, said, “Based on the latest surveys conducted in the Sea of Oman…we have discovered gas hydrate reserves equaling the country’s total conventional oil and gas reserves”.
Keshavarz underlined the importance of using gas hydrate as replacement to fossil fuels, saying “After exploitation, every cubic meter of gas hydrate will produce heat equal to 164 cubic meters of gas.”
Gas hydrate is a crystalline water-based solid physically resembling ice, in which small non-polar molecules (typically gases) or polar molecules with large hydrophobic moieties are trapped inside ‘cages’ of hydrogen-bonded water molecules.