[blam]

"The only justification I could see is the new shale discoveries in Louisiana and Texas along with Japan’s successful withdrawal of methane hydrate..."

An Energy Coup for Japan: ‘Flammable Ice’

[tbw2]

If Japan figures out how to do this en masse, Peak Oil is over - because there is more methane hydrate on the bottom of the ocean than oil underground that we believe exists.
God help us if environmentalists jump in and ban it because of the worms that eat it.