China's first deep-sea exploration vessel for the reconnaissance of combustible ice was delivered for use on Sunday in south China's Guangdong Province.

Wang Xuelong, deputy director of China Geological Survey Bureau, handed over the certificate of seaworthiness for the ship coded Ocean No. 6 to the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey Bureau, which is carrying out the combustible ice survey in South China Sea.

Wang said that the ship independently developed by China cost 400 million yuan (US$59 million) to build.

The ship has a gross tonnage of 4,600 tons and an endurance of 15,000 nautical miles. It has been equipped with underwater remote-control survey facilities and other high-tech devices, he said.

China announced in 2007 to have successfully excavated combustible ice, a kind of natural gas hydrate, under the South China Sea, making the country the fourth after the United States, Japan and India to succeed in the field.

Combustible ice is regarded as a potential source of alternative energy to coal and oil. One cubic meter of combustible ice can release 164 cubic meters of natural gas.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2009)