China has set a world record for deep-sea drilling in the South China Sea, Chinese state media reported, while tensions in the disputed area are rising. According to the Xinhua news agency , Chinese scientists aboard a marine research vessel drilled on Wednesday 2,060 meters (6758 feet) under the seabed to obtain a sediment core. China’s drilling system Sea Bull II is the world’s only seabed drilling equipment with a drilling capacity of more than 200 meters (656 feet), and it could help the country to explore natural gas hydrate resources, Xinhua says. China has said in recent years it has successfully extracted gas from gas hydrates, also known as ‘fire ice’ or ‘flammable ice’, including in parts of the South China Sea. It was not immediately clear where exactly in the South China Sea the latest deep-sea drilling project took place, but tensions in the area have recently […]