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DOE announces hydrate research project Selects project to characterize the properties of subsea methane hydrate resources in the Gulf of Mexico outer continental shelf Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that it has awarded a $41 million grant to a team that will collect samples and conduct analyses, to better characterize methane hydrate resources that are known to exist in sands under deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The idea is to gain insights into the physical properties of the deposits for the purpose of methane hydrate resource appraisal.
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, the Ohio State University, the Columbia University-Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and the U.S. Geological Survey will conduct the project, which will be managed by the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.
Potential gas resource Methane hydrate consists of methane, the main component of natural gas, trapped in an ice-like lattice of water molecules. The material, which is stable within a certain range of somewhat elevated pressures combined with low temperatures, is known to exist widely in some subsea settings, and straddling the base of the permafrost on land in Arctic regions such as northern Alaska. Given the vast quantities of methane trapped inside methane hydrate deposits, the deposits could become prolific sources of natural gas, should some viable means of developing the hydrate resources be developed. On the other hand, there are concerns that the natural decomposition of the hydrates could release the methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
The Department of Energy has led a methane hydrate research program since 2000, in collaboration with other federal agencies, universities, industry and international programs, to advance the scientific understanding of the material’s resource potential and its environmental impacts. In recent years DOE has provided funding assistance for the drilling of two methane hydrate test wells on Alaska’s North Slope, to evaluate the properties of permafrost-related hydrate deposits in that region.
Measurement and sampling The new research project that the department is now sponsoring will follow up on some previous research in the Gulf of Mexico that successfully documented the presence of hydrate deposits in certain regions of the gulf. The new project will collect in-situ measurements and core samples to characterize the deposits. The research team will assess the potential for producing natural gas from the deposits and will further delineate the extent of the deposits on the U.S. outer continental shelf.
The research will involve an offshore drilling program, the collection of samples and the gathering of downhole log data. Tests will include the measurement of the hydrate reservoir response to short-duration pressure perturbations, DOE says. Field data and laboratory analyses will enable determinations of in-situ hydrate concentrations, and the physical properties and thermodynamic state of the hydrate bearing sands, the agency says.
Although this new research is aimed at the outer continental shelf, DOE says that it remains interested Alaska’s methane hydrate deposits and that it intends to further evaluate production methods for terrestrial hydrates in the state.
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