天然气水合物是甲烷等烃类气体与水在高压低温条件下形成的笼形化合物，俗称可燃冰，将有望成为继页岩气、致密气、煤层气、油砂等之后的储量最为巨大的接替能源，主要分布在北极冻土带和沿海大陆架300~3000 m水深的深水区，初步估计其资源量为全球含碳化合物的两倍，其中约95 %储存在深海区域；与此同时，深水浅层弱胶结水合物的无序分解等潜在工程地质灾害、温室效应等也已引起世界各国的高度重视，因此，天然气水合物资源安全高效开发和环境风险并重，成为当前世界科技创新的前沿。本文回顾了国内外天然气水合物资源勘探和试采技术研

Gas hydrate, also called “fire ice”, is cage compound generated by hydrocarbon gas such as methane mixed with water in low temperatures and high pressures, which is expected to be the most important alternative energy after shale gas, tight gas, coal bed methane and oil sands. Gas hydrate in the seabed distributes widely in the depth of 300–3 000 m deep water in the arctic tundra or coastal shelf, of which about 95 % is stored in the deep sea region. It has been preliminarily estimated that the amount of gas hydrate is twice larger than that of the global carbon-containing compounds. Great attention has been attracted on disorder decomposition of weakly consolidated gas hydrate in shallow-layer in deep water, which can cause potential engineering geological hazard and the greenhouse effect. Safe and efficient development and environmental risks are equally important for developing the gas hydrate, so the research field has been the forefront of technological innovation around the world. This paper reviews the research progress of natural gas hydrate exploration and trial mining technology. On this basis, some ideas of natural gas hydrate exploration and development technology are described in terms of the potential target sea area in China and the relevant characteristics of gas hydrate samples already acquired.