Natural gas production from methane hydrates may someday prove viable. The USGS Gas Hydrate Project takes part in US and international programs to investigate the potential of deepwater marine and permafrost gas hydrates as an energy resource. Long-term production tests are the next step in this research.
A key goal of the USGS Gas Hydrates Project is contributing to research that may lead to the development of gas hydrates as a potential energy source. This research is conducted by the USGS Gas Hydrates Project with support from both the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program in the USGS Natural Hazards Mission Area) and the Energy Resources Program (ERP) in the USGS Energy and Minerals Mission Area.
Project personnel at the Central Energy Resources Science Center lead the expeditionary component of Project’s energy resource work, arranging USGS participation in drilling, borehole logging, pressure coring, and other activities to study hydrate-bearing formations in permafrost or marine environments. Geophysicists, geotechnical engineers, and geochemists based at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center participate in these expeditions and conduct laboratory operations to analyze and interpret recovered sediments, hydrate, gas, and pore fluids to elucidate hydrate reservoir properties. Project scientists based at the USGS Earthquake Science Center at Menlo Park provide state-of-the-art cryogenic scanning electron microscopy that can image individual hydrate crystals.
Conducting a long-term production test would be an important step on the trajectory towards demonstrating that gas hydrates have resource potential. The USGS is at the forefront of efforts to plan a long-term production test. The USGS Gas Hydrates Project is collaborating with the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Organization (JOGMEC) and the U.S. Department of Energy to undertake a long-term production test in a permafrost setting near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska starting in January 2022. This project is the culmination of years of effort that included conventional drilling and borehole logging in Alaska and the permafrost of the Canadian Mackenzie Delta, short term production testing and analysis of the reservoir’s response, processing of three-dimensional seismic data, injection of CO2 into gas hydrate deposits, and planning and modeling to optimize pressure coring of hydrate-bearing sediments and initiation of the long-term production test.
Some of the locations where the USGS Gas Hydrates Project has participated in expeditions or post-cruise science focused on gas hydrates or gas hydrate resources are:
- Mallik (Mackenzie Delta, Canada) drilling in 2002
- Alaskan North Slope ("Mt Elbert" drilling at Milne Point) in 2007
- Ignik Sikumi (Alaskan North Slope) CO2 and nitrogen injection test in 2012
- Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Coring and Drilling in 2005, 2009, and 2017; seismic programs in 1999, 2002 and 2013; heat flow program in 2003; associated microbial analyses of hydrate-bearing sediments in 2019
- U.S. Atlantic margin seismic survey to refine gas hydrate distributions (MATRIX) in 2018
- Methane Hydrate 21 (MH21) Nankai Margin pressure core analysis in 2013
- Northern Gulf of Mexico seismic survey in 2013
- Beaufort Sea seismic surveys in 1977 and 2012
- National Gas Hydrates Program (NGHP) India in 2006 and in 2015
- Ulleung Basin/East Sea collaborations in 2007 and 2010
- Academic drilling: IODP 311 (Vancouver margin); ODP 164 (Blake Ridge) and 204 (Cascadia margin)
Research associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project
U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project
Data releases associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project.
Preliminary global database of known and inferred gas hydrate locations
High concentration methane hydrate in a silt reservoir from the deep-water Gulf of Mexico
Pressure coring a Gulf of Mexico deep-water turbidite gas hydrate reservoir: Initial results from The University of Texas–Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition
An international code comparison study on coupled thermal, hydrologic and geomechanical processes of natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments
Potential freshening impacts on fines migration and pore-throat clogging during gas hydrate production: 2-D micromodel study with Diatomaceous UBGH2 sediments
Gas hydrate petroleum systems: What constitutes the “seal”?
2D micromodel study of clogging behavior of fine-grained particles associated with gas hydrate production in NGHP-02 gas hydrate reservoir sediments
Compressibility and particle crushing of Krishna-Godavari Basin sediments from offshore India: Implications for gas production from deep-water gas hydrate deposits
Preface: Marine gas hydrate reservoir systems along the eastern continental margin of India: Results of the National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02
Assessment of undiscovered gas hydrate resources in the North Slope of Alaska, 2018
Gas hydrate production testing – Knowledge gained
Multi-measurement approach for establishing the base of gas hydrate occurrence in the Krishna-Godavari Basin for sites cored during Expedition NGHP-02 in the offshore of India
Downhole physical property-based description of a gas hydrate petroleum system in NGHP-02 Area C: A channel, levee, fan complex in the Krishna-Godavari Basin offshore eastern India
News associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project
Natural gas production from methane hydrates may someday prove viable. The USGS Gas Hydrate Project takes part in US and international programs to investigate the potential of deepwater marine and permafrost gas hydrates as an energy resource. Long-term production tests are the next step in this research.
A key goal of the USGS Gas Hydrates Project is contributing to research that may lead to the development of gas hydrates as a potential energy source. This research is conducted by the USGS Gas Hydrates Project with support from both the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program in the USGS Natural Hazards Mission Area) and the Energy Resources Program (ERP) in the USGS Energy and Minerals Mission Area.
Project personnel at the Central Energy Resources Science Center lead the expeditionary component of Project’s energy resource work, arranging USGS participation in drilling, borehole logging, pressure coring, and other activities to study hydrate-bearing formations in permafrost or marine environments. Geophysicists, geotechnical engineers, and geochemists based at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center participate in these expeditions and conduct laboratory operations to analyze and interpret recovered sediments, hydrate, gas, and pore fluids to elucidate hydrate reservoir properties. Project scientists based at the USGS Earthquake Science Center at Menlo Park provide state-of-the-art cryogenic scanning electron microscopy that can image individual hydrate crystals.
Conducting a long-term production test would be an important step on the trajectory towards demonstrating that gas hydrates have resource potential. The USGS is at the forefront of efforts to plan a long-term production test. The USGS Gas Hydrates Project is collaborating with the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Organization (JOGMEC) and the U.S. Department of Energy to undertake a long-term production test in a permafrost setting near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska starting in January 2022. This project is the culmination of years of effort that included conventional drilling and borehole logging in Alaska and the permafrost of the Canadian Mackenzie Delta, short term production testing and analysis of the reservoir’s response, processing of three-dimensional seismic data, injection of CO2 into gas hydrate deposits, and planning and modeling to optimize pressure coring of hydrate-bearing sediments and initiation of the long-term production test.
Some of the locations where the USGS Gas Hydrates Project has participated in expeditions or post-cruise science focused on gas hydrates or gas hydrate resources are:
- Mallik (Mackenzie Delta, Canada) drilling in 2002
- Alaskan North Slope ("Mt Elbert" drilling at Milne Point) in 2007
- Ignik Sikumi (Alaskan North Slope) CO2 and nitrogen injection test in 2012
- Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Coring and Drilling in 2005, 2009, and 2017; seismic programs in 1999, 2002 and 2013; heat flow program in 2003; associated microbial analyses of hydrate-bearing sediments in 2019
- U.S. Atlantic margin seismic survey to refine gas hydrate distributions (MATRIX) in 2018
- Methane Hydrate 21 (MH21) Nankai Margin pressure core analysis in 2013
- Northern Gulf of Mexico seismic survey in 2013
- Beaufort Sea seismic surveys in 1977 and 2012
- National Gas Hydrates Program (NGHP) India in 2006 and in 2015
- Ulleung Basin/East Sea collaborations in 2007 and 2010
- Academic drilling: IODP 311 (Vancouver margin); ODP 164 (Blake Ridge) and 204 (Cascadia margin)
Research associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project
U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project
Data releases associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project.
Preliminary global database of known and inferred gas hydrate locations
High concentration methane hydrate in a silt reservoir from the deep-water Gulf of Mexico
Pressure coring a Gulf of Mexico deep-water turbidite gas hydrate reservoir: Initial results from The University of Texas–Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition
An international code comparison study on coupled thermal, hydrologic and geomechanical processes of natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments
Potential freshening impacts on fines migration and pore-throat clogging during gas hydrate production: 2-D micromodel study with Diatomaceous UBGH2 sediments
Gas hydrate petroleum systems: What constitutes the “seal”?
2D micromodel study of clogging behavior of fine-grained particles associated with gas hydrate production in NGHP-02 gas hydrate reservoir sediments
Compressibility and particle crushing of Krishna-Godavari Basin sediments from offshore India: Implications for gas production from deep-water gas hydrate deposits
Preface: Marine gas hydrate reservoir systems along the eastern continental margin of India: Results of the National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02
Assessment of undiscovered gas hydrate resources in the North Slope of Alaska, 2018
Gas hydrate production testing – Knowledge gained
Multi-measurement approach for establishing the base of gas hydrate occurrence in the Krishna-Godavari Basin for sites cored during Expedition NGHP-02 in the offshore of India
Downhole physical property-based description of a gas hydrate petroleum system in NGHP-02 Area C: A channel, levee, fan complex in the Krishna-Godavari Basin offshore eastern India
News associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project