gas hydrate - CCOP

Supply and demand infrastructure of anthracite, which is the only major indigenous energy
resource in South Korea, shows different patterns for the years before and after the peak
consumption year of 1986, when 27.6 million tons of anthracite was consumed. Both
demand and supply of anthracite had been increasing steadily until 1986 since anthracite was
the main energy resource consumed in the residential and commercial sector of South Korea.
The demand for anthracite started to decrease after 1986 because of fuel substitution by oil,
gas and electricity. Unfortunately the cost of domestic mining of anthracite had been rising
due mainly to the increasing depth of the working faces at the coal mines. These kinds of
factors resulted in considerable difficulties for the coal mining industry. In April 1987, the
government established the Korea Coal Industry Promotion Board in order to rationalize the
coal industry and in 1988 began to make assistance available for the closure of non
competitive mines, starting in 1989. As a result, 303 mines (13.6 million tons total
production) were closed during the period of 1989-1993. Production of coal in 2005 was
estimated to have decreased by more than 90 percent in comparison with that in 1986.
Table 1. Coal Reserves in South Korea
unit: 1,000 M/T
Classification
Coal Field Reserves Recoverable
Reserves
Potential
recoverable
Recoverable
Total
Gangreung 63,764 20,864 22,547 43,411
Jungseun 450,965 44,864 53,116 97,980
Samcheog 565,578 194,694 95,135 289,825
Danyang 62,067 15,839 15,054 30,893
Munkyung 71,347 26,241 18,726 44,967
Boeun 23,740 9,052 7,035 16,087
Chungnam 116,293 29,902 23,996 53,898
Honam 92,508 30,923 26,072 56,995
Others 4,336 1,659 1,339 2,998
Total 1,450,598 374,038 263,020 637,058
COAL BEARING STRATA IN SOUTH KOREA
Coal bearing strata in Korea all belong either to late Carboniferous to early Triassic Pyeongan
Supergroup or the late Triassic to early Jurassic Daedong Group. The Carboniferous to
Permian strata comprise seven to eight viable coal seams of which one to three seams are
being mined, while ten of the thirty coal seams in early Jurassic strata are being mined. Coal
seams of the Permian are relatively thick and of higher quality compared with those of the
Jurassic. Usually Permian and early Jurassic coal-bearing strata show highly variable, often
steep dips and discontinuous, lensoid distribution due to two phases of strong deformation in
the mid-Triassic (Songrim Orogeny) and late Jurassic (Daebo Orogeny) respectively (Chough
et al, 2000). All of the Permian and Jurassic coals are of anthracite rank, but locally most of
the volatiles have been driven off in the process of metamorphism of the coal beds, and partly
amorphous graphite now remains.
120 New Energy Resources in the CCOP Region - Gas Hydrates and Coalbed Methane