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Gas Hydrates

NEW Assessment of Gas Hydrate Resources on the North Slope, Alaska, 2008
Fact Sheet 2008-3073 | Press Release (11/12/08) | Podcast (Episode 74)
Slide Presentation (Flash document 10.6 MB)
Gas Hydrates Website

While the United States have massive amounts of gas hydrates, one estimate is that the U.S. has only one quarter of the world’s hydrate resource. Gas hydrates are primarily located in Arctic permafrost and marine continental slope environments..

Gas hydrates, which are accumulations of methane (natural gas) trapped in ice-like structures with water, represent an immense energy resource underlying large portions of the world’s marine continental shelves and Arctic continental areas. The USGS is participating in several international consortia of research, industry, and academic institutions. The USGS also has ongoing cooperative research efforts with the BLM, MMS, the State of Alaska, the Department of Energy, industry, and Native Alaskan corporations to further the understanding of gas hydrate endowment and recoverability from Alaska’s North Slope.

USGS Gas Hydrates Research Highlights:

• Evaluation of Alaska North Slope Gas Hydrate Energy Resources USGS is involved in several gas hydrates projects in Alaska. (1) Resource Characterization and Quantification of Natural Gas Hydrate Accumulations in Prudhoe Bay - Kuparuk River Area, North Slope of Alaska, with DOE, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., Univ of Arizona, and Univ of Alaska: the characterize, quantify, and determine the commerciality of gas hydrate and associated free gas resources in arctic regions through integrated research to promote safe, low cost, and environmentally responsible production of abundant, strategic, and secure energy resources. (2) Evaluation and Assessment of Alaska North Slope Gas Hydrate Energy Resources, in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the State of Alaska Division of Oil and Gas.
  Website: DOE/The National Methane Hydrates R&D Program The Alaska North Slope Stratigraphic Test Well

• The Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrates Joint Industry Project (JIP) is investigating naturally occurring gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Goals of the JIP include (1) to develop and implement a research and technology plan to assist in the characterization of sediments containing naturally occurring hydrates in deepwater in the GOM; (2) assess and understand the potential safety hazards associated with drilling wells through sediments containing gas hydrates; (3) develop a database of seismic, core, log, thermophysical, and biogeochemical data to identify current hydrate containing sites in deepwater GOM; (4) plan and execute a drilling and sample collection field testing program to collect data and obtain cores to characterize the hydrate containing sediments in the GOM; (5) develop wellbore and seafloor stability models pertinent to hydrate containing sediments in the GOM.
  Website: The DOE/JIP Gulf of Mexico Hydrate Research Cruise
  

• India Project The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) (under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Gov’t of India) are conducting studies prior, during, and after gas hydrate coring/drilling in the Indian offshore program. This cooperative project between the DGH and the USGS aims to provide a full and comprehensive understanding of the geologic occurrence of gas hydrates along the continental margin of India. Information gained from this study will be used to assess the energy resource potential of gas hydrates in the offshore of India.
  Website: DOE/NETL Indian Ocean Hydrate Research Press Release

• Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 311 A transect of four sites across the Northern Cascadia margin was cored during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 311 to study gas hydrate occurrences and formation models for accretionary complexes. In addition, a fifth site representing a cold vent with active fluid and gas flow, was visited. The four transect sites represent different stages in the evolution of gas hydrate across the margin from the earliest occurrence on the westernmost first accreted ridge to its final stage at the eastward limit of gas hydrate occurrence on the margin in shallower water.
  Website: IODP Expedition 311

• The Mallik Project The Mallik Research Consortium drilled three test wells in Canada’s Mackenzie Delta, and the results of this cooperative effort, demonstrating the producibility of this energy resource, were published in 2005.
  Website: Geological Survey of Canada, Scientific results from the Mallik 2002 gas hydrate production well program - GSC Bulletin 585

• Program Scientists served on planning and steering committees for the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act, 2000 [18KB PDF] Note: The Methane Hydrate R&D Act Reauthorization Act of 2005 was passed. The Act amends the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000 to reauthorize the methane hydrate research and development program through FY 2010. More on the 2005 Act when it becomes available.

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