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Turning ice into fire could be key to long-term energy needs International research team setting up operations on coast of Canada's Beaufort Sea to drill methane hydrate formation Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
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 engineers from around the world is setting up operations in the Canadian Arctic in hopes of producing fire from ice this winter by tapping deposits of methane hydrates.
The C$14 million project on the coast of the Beaufort Sea as touted as one of the first serious attempts to exploit a future energy bonanza that some estimate could be 300 times greater than all conventional gas supplies in North America.
Huge volumes of the hydrates are locked in extremely hard, ice-like formations in deep-sea environments around the world, including beneath the permafrost of the Arctic tundra.
Scott Dallimore, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada, said the scientific community has long known about the formations, but has only recently started looking for feasible ways to produce the energy.
He cautioned that commercial development is far off. In fact, some U.S. scientists have put the horizon at 50 years.
U.S. reserve in thousands of trillion cubic feet But the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated there could be 320,000 trillion cubic feet of hydrates in U.S. territory alone.
USGS geologist Timothy Collett concedes a major technological effort will be needed just to reach the deposits, but tapping just 1 percent could more than double U.S. gas output in one fell swoop.
A USGS report projected world-wide hydrate supplies could be 400 million trillion cubic feet, compared with known gas reserves of 5,000 trillion cubic feet.
Over the next few weeks, the Canadian research project will see three wells drilled into a hydrate field discovered in 1971 by Imperial Oil Ltd., which is 69.6 percent owned by Exxon Mobil Corp. The program includes a main production well to a depth of about 4,000 feet and two observation wells.
“If we’re successful we’ll be the first in the world to carry out modern production testing of a gas-hydrate deposit,” Dallimore said earlier this year.
Main purpose to advance the science He said the main purpose of the current venture is to advance the science. Beyond there, real progress will need hundreds of millions of dollars of investment by producers exploring for gas in the Mackenzie Delta.
The team of scientists from Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany and India will conduct field experiments to assess how the hydrates respond to various extraction techniques.
Other researchers will be based in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, about 120 miles from the drill site, to analyze the hydrate core samples.
Dallimore said the study may also disclose whether the formations affect climate change, since methane is a greenhouse gas that has far greater potential to warm the planet than carbon dioxide.
Japan spearheading major research The major research thrust is being spearheaded by Japan and its state-owned Japan National Oil Corp., which will oversee the Canadian drilling operation as part of spending about C$75 million a year on hydrate research over the past five years.
This follows the drilling of a huge hydrate formation in the Nankai Trough,40 miles off Japan’s Pacific Coast in the 1999-2000 winter, with the objective of possibly harnessing the energy potential in the next 15 years.
In the United States hydrates are plentiful on the North Slope, along the Carolina coast of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and off the Pacific Coast. Elsewhere, large deposits have been found around Russia’s Lake Baikal and off British Columbia’s Vancouver Island a team of University of Toronto engineers estimates it has found enough hydrates in a mere four square mile area to meet the energy needs of all Canadian households for six years.
But the hydrates barely register in the U.S. Department of Energy’s radar screen. The U.S. Congress passed the methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000, which authorized the DOE to spend $5 million on research this year, increasing to $12 million by 2005. That spending also includes the Canadian project.
But a spokesman for the DOE said a decision on the viability of commercial hydrate production is unlikely before 2015.
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