On July 4, counselor of the State Council, the former chief engineer of Ministry of Land and Resources, Zhang Hongtao met with South Korea experts, Prof. LEE Sung-Rock from KIGAM, and Dr. Choi Byeonggoc from Korea National Oil Corporation. They conducted the exchanges on the issue regarding the natural gas hydrate exploitation and development technologies breakthrough, and further discussed the joint efforts both parties could contribute to the natural gas hydrates work of Asian countries.

    The person engaged in the relevant work of CGS elaborated on the natural gas hydrate in the South China Sea. Dr. Choi Byeonggoc introduced the research progress they made on the natural gas hydrates in South Korea, the technical problems at present and the future plan. South Korea was about to finish the trial mining design of natural gas hydrates at the end of 2014, and launched the trial mining officially in 2015. They are now actively bidding for the host of the 9th International Conference on Gas Hydrates, and accelerating the development process of natural gas hydrates in Asia.

    Relevant personnel attended the meeting, including those from Department of Geological Investigation and Department of Science and Technology and International Cooperation, CGS.