From the AP, via Business Week:

China plans to spend 800 million yuan (US$100 million; euro78 million) over the next decade on studying natural gas hydrates, an alternative fuel Beijing hopes might help to limit its growing reliance on oil imports, the government said Wednesday.

Trial exploration of methane hydrate, a crystalline compound of water and natural gas, is expected to become viable between 2010 and 2015, the government planning agency said in a report on its Web site. [Full text]