Picking the test site 10/11/2009
Researchers study potential areas for North Slope gas hydrate production test
Researchers engaged in a multiyear joint government, industry and university project to investigate the production of natural gas from gas hydrates under Alaska's central North Slope are selecting a s...

Field test of CO2-CH4 exchange planned 10/04/2009
ConocoPhillips has patented exchange technology developed in laboratory for producing methane hydrate without dissociating water
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory says technically recoverable gas hydrate resources on Alaska's North Slope are some 85 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas res...

Consortium locates gas hydrates in GOM 05/24/2009
Government and industry project finds saturated deposits in reservoir sands at two out of three sites drilled in offshore expedition
In another key step towards the possible future development of gas hydrates, a potential major source of natural gas, a research team has found highly saturated deposits of the material in reservoir-q...

One step at a time for gas hydrates 01/18/2009
DOE and BP evaluating sites for production test while ConocoPhillips starts its North Slope research for using carbon dioxide
Following success with the Mount Elbert gas hydrate stratigraphic test well on Alaska's North Slope in 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy and BP are working on plans for a first-of-its-kind, long-ter...

A major gas source for the future? 11/16/2008
DOI announces USGS assessment of North Slope gas hydrates and strikes a note of optimism about possible future production
On Nov. 12 the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the release of the U.S. Geological Survey assessment of technically recoverable gas from gas hydrates on the North Slope. As reported in the Oc...

Hydrate estimate set at 85 tcf 10/26/2008
USGS publishes assessment of technically recoverable North Slope gas hydrates
The potential volumes of natural gas tied up in gas hydrates in northern Alaska dwarf the volumes being used to drive the economics of a North Slope gas line - a 1995 USGS assessment of U.S. gas hydra...

Tapping whole new fuel source 04/27/2008
Canadian Arctic research team achieves first sustained flow of gas from Mackenzie Delta hydrates
It took Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, to inject credibility into what has often been treated as pure science fiction. "In the more distant future, perhaps a ge...

ANS hydrate test results promising 11/11/2007
Data from North Slope test well indicate hydrate saturation up to 75 percent but feasibility of gas production remains unknown
In a paper presented on Oct. 16 to the Arctic Energy Summit Technical Conference Scott Digert, BP technical advisor, and Robert Hunter, ASRC Energy Services project manager, presented new results from...

North Slope gas hydrate well hits target 02/25/2007
BP-operated Mount Elbert well confirms presence of gas hydrate accumulation and enables coring and testing of gas hydrate zone
A joint government, industry and university team investigating gas hydrate deposits under Alaska's North Slope hit the jackpot in mid-February, when the BP-operated Mount Elbert stratigraphic test wel...

BP applies to drill gas hydrate strat test 02/05/2006
Mount Elbert well in Milne Point unit on North Slope will help determine whether gas hydrates could become viable gas resource
BP Exploration (Alaska) has taken a further step towards drilling the North Slope gas hydrate stratigraphic test well that it has been planning in recent months. In a plan of operations submitted to A...

Waking the North Slope's sleeping giant 12/04/2005
A stratigraphic test well may be the next step in unlocking the slope's vast gas hydrate resources, much near existing facilities
We know that the gas hydrates under Alaska's North Slope contain vast quantities of valuable natural gas. But finding a practical and economic way of tapping into this giant resource presents some maj...

DOE funds $2M in hydrate research 11/13/2005
The Department of Energy said Nov. 7 that it is providing $2 million in funding to five methane hydrate research projects. • Battelle Memorial Institute in Richland, Wash., will evaluate and contrast...

First northwest NPR-A drilling this winter 10/30/2005
If changes to BLM's northeast NPR-A plan approved by Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, lease sale there could occur next summer
If Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton approves the Bureau of Land Management's proposed changes in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska northeast area plan, BLM would hold a lease sale there this...

Milestone reached in hydrate research 10/16/2005
Geological Survey of Canada publishes results; researchers believe gas hydrates could extend life of Mackenzie Valley gas line
In completing a gas hydrate research program in the Canadian Arctic, researchers claim to have established for the first time that production from hydrates is technically possible. They now suggest th...

MEET ALASKA 2005: Gas hydrates starting to look feasible 01/23/2005
An investigation team reports that gas hydrates could become a source of natural gas from the North Slope within a few years
According to a 2001 report by the Minerals Management Service as much as 519 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie under the permafrost of northern Alaska in the form of gas hydrates. With the...

North Slope gas hydrates starting to look feasible 01/02/2005
An investigation team reports that gas hydrates could become a source of natural gas within a few years
According to a 2001 report by the Minerals Management Service as much as 519 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie under the permafrost of northern Alaska in the form of gas hydrates. With the...

Can gas hydrates become part of North Slope gas portfolio? 06/20/2004
Collaborative work by BP Exploration (Alaska) and the U.S. Department of Energy aimed at assessing potential of unconventional resource
Gas hydrates are the one unconventional natural gas resource that has not yet been proved economic, but a collaborative project by the U.S. Department of Energy and BP Exploration (Alaska) could move...

Technical 'breakthrough' in hydrates turns heads 12/28/2003
C$25 million Mackenzie Delta test results spur talk of commercial pay-off
The numbers are so big they scarcely have a name and the technology is so untried that commercial development could be decades away. But a staggering energy source is one step closer to being develope...

BP quantifies gas hydrates 04/27/2003
Using existing shallow seismic data, BP evaluates known gas hydrate structures located underneath existing oilfield infrastructure on Alaska's North Slope
In what could be BP Exploration (Alaska)'s first step toward developing a large, unconventional energy resource on the North Slope, the company is leading a phased public-private research project to e...

Heavy-oil tax credits moving in Senate, could boost production 04/13/2003
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski told the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce April 7 that there is considerable support in Washington "for a $3 per barrel heavy oil subsidy or offset as they call it under Secti...

BP-led research project investigates gas hydrate production for North Slope 05/05/2002
DOE funding supports analysis and commercial assessment of ANS hydrates; resources estimated to be 590 trillion cubic feet of methane
Researchers are gearing up for the first of a possible three-phase project that will characterize, quantify and assess the feasibility of commercial production from gas hydrates found beneath existing...

'Very encouraging' results from Mackenzie Delta hydrate project 04/21/2002
Team of scientists met all technical objectives, but won't make detailed results public for two years; experts doubt hydrate production is possible for 30-50 years
A seven-member international partnership trying to revolutionize future energy markets has reported "very encouraging" results from successful production testing of methane hydrates in the Canadian Ar...

Turning ice into fire could be key to long-term energy needs 12/30/2001
International research team setting up operations on coast of Canada's Beaufort Sea to drill methane hydrate formation
With coalbed methane moving rapidly into the mainstream of North American energy supplies, attention is turning to a potentially greater, yet more mysterious source. The first of 100 scientists and e...