Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Pore- and fracture-filling gas hydrate reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project Leg II Green Canyon 955 H well

June 8, 2012

High-quality logging-while-drilling (LWD) downhole logs were acquired in seven wells drilled during the Gulf of MexicoGasHydrateJointIndustryProjectLegII in the spring of 2009. Well logs obtained in one of the wells, the GreenCanyon Block 955Hwell (GC955-H), indicate that a 27.4-m thick zone at the depth of 428 m below sea floor (mbsf; 1404 feet below sea floor (fbsf)) contains gashydrate within sand with average gashydrate saturations estimated at 60% from the compressional-wave (P-wave) velocity and 65% (locally more than 80%) from resistivity logs if the gashydrate is assumed to be uniformly distributed in this mostly sand-rich section. Similar analysis, however, of log data from a shallow clay-rich interval between 183 and 366 mbsf (600 and 1200 fbsf) yielded average gashydrate saturations of about 20% from the resistivity log (locally 50-60%) and negligible amounts of gashydrate from the P-wave velocity logs. Differences in saturations estimated between resistivity and P-wave velocities within the upper clay-rich interval are caused by the nature of the gashydrate occurrences. In the case of the shallow clay-rich interval, gashydrate fills vertical (or high angle) fractures in rather than fillingpore space in sands. In this study, isotropic and anisotropic resistivity and velocity models are used to analyze the occurrence of gashydrate within both the clay-rich and sand dominated gas-hydrate-bearing reservoirs in the GC955-Hwell.

Publication Year 2012
Title Pore- and fracture-filling gas hydrate reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project Leg II Green Canyon 955 H well
DOI 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2011.08.002
Authors M. W. Lee, T. S. Collett
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Marine and Petroleum Geology
Index ID 70003726
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Central Energy Resources Science Center