MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Promising signs of gas in Chilean coastline.

A group of scientists from the Valparaiso University in a joint research cruise with the Chilean Navy confirmed this Thursday the discovery of gas hydrates on the ocean bed between the cities of Valparaiso and Concepcion.

The discovery is part of the oceanographic activities undertaken by the Chilean government with the purpose of ensuring energy self supply. This was apparently the third exploration cruise aboard the scientific vessel "Vidal Gormaz" which also involves scientists from the University of Concepción.

The presence of gas hydrates is a strong indicator of potential natural gas reserves.

Both the Chilean government and the private sector are very much interested in this research program not only because of the natural gas supply disputes with Argentina last winter but also because of the soaring prices of hydrocarbons, of which Chile is highly dependent.

"Last Sunday October 17 we extracted the first samples of sediments with gas hydrates" said Professor Juan Díaz from Valparaiso University.

"This is very much expected news for us because it's the first evidence of the existence of hydrates in the sea bed which confirms our research hypothesis", indicated Professor Esteban Morales who revealed that in the two previous cruises geophysics surveying was undertaken but no samples had been extracted.

No details of where the samples were taken were given.