According to the ministry, this is the most important geological discovery to have been made in China since 1959, when they found some oil deposits. The energy value of the estimated new supply of "ice that burns" is equivalent to 255.5 billion barrels of crude oil; approximately, 200 times the domestic production of oil. Immediately after the announcement, the Shanghai market witnessed the value of the energy company shares sky rocket.
But some scientists warn of the danger connected to hydrates: If released into the air, in fact, they cause pollution 25 times that of carbon dioxide. Currently, the reserve is protected by the natural ice that covers it, but the gradual melting of the perennial ice caps is likely to release its destructive power. Professor Qingbai Wu, deputy director of the state laboratory of Lanzhou, calls it "the most serious concern for the global climate. When most people talk about greenhouse gas emissions from China, they are talking about cars and factories ... but methane hydrates, if they do exist in Tibet in a huge quantity, actually pose the biggest threat”.
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