China has successfully collected practical samples of the "combustible ice"--natural gas hydrate in North of Nanhai city, Guangdong Province. It made china became the fourth nation that has collected natural gas hydrate samples through a state-level research and development program, just behind the US, Japan and India, according to People's daily.

Ministry of Land and Resources confirmed in the press conference on June 5, that that there are rich reserves of natural gas hydrate resources north of China's Nanhai City, an event that has made China's research of natural gas hydrate among the best in the world.

Experts forecasted that the long-range reserves in the northern Nanhai could reach the equivalent of 10 billion tons of oil.

Natural gas hydrate exists in seabeds or within a frozen layer of earth; every cubic meter of gas hydrate can release 164 cubic meters of natural gas. It is estimated that the total amount of organic carbon contained in natural gas hydrate is two times that of the global known amount of coal, oil and natural gas. It is the best replacement.

Editor: Yan