Japan to begin the world’s first offshore drilling operation to extract frozen natural gas locked under the seabed.

Japan Oil, Gas & Metals National Corp., known as JOGMEC, and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology will begin test production for methane hydrate in the Nankai Trough about 50 kilometers (31 miles) off the coast of the country’s main island of Honshu, reports Bloomberg.

Deposits of methane hydrate, known as “burnable ice,” could provide Japan with a “next-generation source of clean energy” and may be large enough to supply the country’s natural gas needs for about 100 years, according to JOGMEC. The government plans to develop technology to enable commercial use of methane hydrate by fiscal 2018.

Source: Bloomberg