Timothy S Collett
Dr. Collett provides science leadership and management oversight within the Energy Resources Program (ERP) funded tasks in the USGS Gas Hydrate Project, which include the (1) North Slope of Alaska Gas Hydrate Energy Production Research Task, (2) Gas Hydrate Energy Assessment Task, (3) International Gas Hydrate Research and Science Advisor Task, and the (4) Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Task.
Biography
Dr. Collett has been a research geologist in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 1983. Tim received a B.S. in geology from Michigan State University, a M.S. in geology from the University of Alaska, and a Ph.D. in geology from the Colorado School of Mines. Tim is the Project Chief of the Energy Resources Program funded gas hydrate research efforts in the USGS. He has received the Department of the Interior Meritorious Service Award and the Golomb-Chilinger Medal from the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the Natural Resources of Canada Public Service Award. Tim has been the Chief and Co-Chief Scientist of numerous domestic and international gas hydrate scientific and industrial drilling expeditions and programs. He has been the Co-Chief Scientists and Operational Manager for the India NGHP Expedition 01 and 02 gas hydrate drilling and testing projects. Tim was a Co-Chief Scientist of the international cooperative gas hydrate research project that was responsible for drilling dedicated gas hydrate production research wells in the Mackenzie Delta of Canada under the Mallik 1998 and 2002 efforts. Tim was the logging scientist on the Gulf of Mexico JIP Gas Hydrate Research Expedition in 2005 and is the Co-Chief Scientist of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 311, and the Gulf of Mexico JIP Leg II drilling project in 2009. He sailed as a science advisor on the Korean UBGH2 Expedition in 2010 and the 2017 University of Texas Gulf of Mexico 2-1 Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition. Tim was also the Principal Investigator responsible for organizing and conducting the 1995 and 2008 USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment of natural gas hydrates. Tim is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines. Tim’s current research efforts in the USGS deal mostly with domestic and international gas hydrate energy resource characterization studies. His ongoing gas hydrate assessment activities in Alaska are focused on assessing the energy resource potential of gas hydrates on the North Slope and supporting the domestic marine gas hydrate assessments being led by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Tim’s international gas hydrate activities include cooperative projects with research partners in India, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Canada. Tim also continues to represent the USGS gas hydrate interest in the Gulf of Mexico through a U.S. Department of Energy cooperative. Tim has published more than 250 research papers along with 10 books and treatises on gas hydrates and other unconventional resources.
Science and Products
Gas Hydrates
Central Energy Resources Science Center - Gas Hydrates Project Page
U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project
The USGS Gas Hydrates Project focuses on the study of natural gas hydrates in deepwater marine systems and permafrost areas. The primary goals are:
- Evaluate methane hydrates as a potential energy source
- Investigate the interaction between methane hydrate destabilization and climate change at short and long time scales, particularly in the Arctic
- Study the spatial ...
Gas Hydrates - Primer
What is Gas Hydrate?
Gas hydrate is an ice-like crystalline form of water and low molecular weight gas (e.g., methane, ethane, carbon dioxide). On Earth, gas hydrates occur naturally in some marine sediments and within and beneath permafrost. Gas hydrates have also been inferred on other planets or their moons.
At the molecular level, gas hydrate...
Results of the India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02
The Government of India, with the support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has released the initial results of the most comprehensive gas hydrate scientific drilling investigation ever undertaken. Upon the occasion of the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference, convened in Houston, Texas on May 2-5, the leadership of the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 (NGHP-02) reported on...
Marine Methane Hydrate Field Research Plan
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), in partnership with the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (COL), initiated a new field-focused methane hydrate research planning effort that would inform, and potentially lead to, future off shore drilling field expeditions. The primary objective of this project was to conduct planning that would help...
Successful Test of Gas Hydrate Production Test Well Ignik Sikumi on Alaska's North Slope
On May 2, 2012 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the completion of the field testing phase of the Ignik Sikumi gas hydrate production test well project on the North Slope of Alaska. The USGS participated in many phases of this work, including originally identifying the test site, which was based on almost 30 years of USGS geologic studies on gas hydrates in northern Alaska.
Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well
Field Report
Korean National Gas Hydrate Program, Second Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Drilling Expedition
As a part of Korean National Gas Hydrate Program, the Second Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Drilling Expedition (UBGH2) was successfully performed by using the D/V Fugro Synergy to establish 13 research drill sites in the period of time from July 8 to September 30, 2010. The first leg of this expedition focused on logging-while-drilling operations, while the second leg focused on both conventional...
The Mallik Research Consortium
The Mallik Research Consortium drilled three test wells in Canada’s Mackenzie Delta, and the results of this international cooperative effort, demonstrating the producibility of this energy resource, were published in 2005. Results Publication: GSC Bulletin 585.
AAPG Memoir 89: Natural Gas Hydrates
USGS Contribution to AAPG Memoir on Gas Hydrates: In the December of 2009, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) published a comprehensive treatise on the geology of gas hydrates which is entitled Natural Gas Hydrates – Energy Resource Potential and Associated Hazards.
Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project
Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project Leg II
Assessment of Gas Hydrate Resources on the North Slope, Alaska, 2008
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed the first assessment of the undiscovered technically recoverable gas-hydrate resources on the North Slope of Alaska. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS estimates that there are about 85 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas resources within gas hydrates in northern Alaska.
Read the...
Viable long-term gas hydrate testing site confirmed on the Alaska north slope
In December 2018, data acquired in a Stratigraphic Test Well drilled from the 7-11-12 pad in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope confirmed the occurrence of two high-quality reservoirs fully saturated with gas hydrate. The drilling was the initial phase of a planned, three-well program designed to conduct an extended...
Ray Boswell; Scott Marsteller; Nori Okinaka; Motoi Wakatsuki; Collett, Timothy S.; Robert Hunter; Tom Walsh; David Itter; Stephen Crumley Gas hydrate production testing – Knowledge gained
Since their initial discovery in the 1960’s, gas hydrates have been considered to be an important potential source of unconventional natural gas. Significant progress has been made relative to our understanding of the geologic and engineering controls on the ultimate energy potential of gas hydrate; however, more work is required to realize the...
Collett, Timothy S. Development of deepwater natural gas hydrates
Deepwater natural gas hydrate resources potentially exceed all other conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbon resources on a world-wide basis. However, before these offshore gas hydrate resources can be classified as reserves, it must be demonstrated that gas hydrates can be produced under conditions that make economic sense. The purpose of...
Steve Hancock; Ray Boswell; Collett, Timothy S. Downhole log evidence for the coexistence of structure II gas hydrate and free gas below the bottom simulating reflector in the South China Sea
Stratigraphic layered pore-filling gas hydrates are identified above the bottom simulating reflector (BSR) using the well log and core data acquired at Sites W11 and W17 during the third gas hydrate drilling expedition conducted by China's Geological Survey/Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (GMGS3) in the South China...
Qian, Jin; Wang, Xiujuan; Collett, Timothy S.; Guo, Yiqun; Kang, Dongju; Jin, Jiapeng National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01 offshore India; gas hydrate systems as revealed by hydrocarbon gas geochemistry
The National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01 (NGHP-01) targeted gas hydrate accumulations offshore of the Indian Peninsula and along the Andaman convergent margin. The primary objectives of coring were to understand the geologic and geochemical controls on the accumulation of methane hydrate and their linkages to underlying petroleum systems....
Lorenson, Thomas; Collett, Timothy S. Geomechanical analysis of initial stage of gas production from interbredded hydrate-bearing sediment
Geomechanical stability of marine hydrate reservoirs during gas production by depressurization is the focus of this study. The reservoir considered here consists of thin hydrate rich sandy layers interbedded with mud layers. Because of the input parameter uncertainties involved, it is prudent from a geomechanical perspective to estimate the likely...
Lin, Jeen-Shang; Uchida, Shun; Myshakin, Evgeniy; Seol, Yongkoo; Rutqvist, Jonny; Boswell, Ray; Waite, William F.; Jang, Junbong; Collett, Timothy S. High-resolution seismic characterization of the gas and gas hydrate system at Green Canyon 955, Gulf of Mexico, USA
The Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments at lease block Green Canyon 955 (GC955) in the Gulf of Mexico include sand-rich strata with high saturations of gas hydrate; these gas hydrate accumulations and the associated geology have been characterized over the past decade using conventional industry three-dimensional (3D) seismic data and dedicated...
Haines, Seth S.; Hart, Patrick E.; Collett, Timothy S.; Shedd, William; Frye, Matthew; Weimer, Paul; Boswell, Ray Observed correlation between the depth to base and top of gas hydrate occurrence from review of global drilling data
A global inventory of data from gas hydrate drilling expeditions is used to develop relationships between the base of structure I gas hydrate stability, top of gas hydrate occurrence, sulfate-methane transition depth, pressure (water depth), and geothermal gradients. The motivation of this study is to provide first-order estimates of the top of...
Riedel, Michael; Collett, Timothy S. Numerical simulations of sand production in interbedded hydrate-bearing sediments during depressurization
Geomechanical behavior of hydrate-bearing sediments during gas production is complex, involving changes in hydrate-dependent mechanical properties. When interbedded clay layers are present, the complexity is more pronounced because hydrate dissociation tends to occur preferentially in the sediments adjacent to the clay layers due to clay layers...
Uchida, Shun; Lin, Jeen-Shang; Myshakin, Evgeniy; Seol, Yongkoo; Collett, Timothy S.; Boswell, Ray Numerical studies of depressurization-induced gas production from an interbedded marine turbidite gas hydrate reservoir model
The numerical simulation of thin hydrate-bearing sand layers interbedded with mud layers is investigated. In this model, the lowest hydrate layer occurs at the base of gas hydrate stability and overlies a thinly-interbedded saline aquifer. The predicted gas rates reach 6.25 MMscf/day (1.77 x 105 m3 /day) after 90 days of continuous...
Myshakin, Evgeniy; Lin, Jeen-Shang; Uchida, Shun; Seol, Yongkoo; Collett, Timothy S.; Boswell, Ray The increasingly complex challenge of gas hydrate reservoir simulation
No abstract available.
Boswell, Ray; Collett, Timothy S.; Myshakin, Evshakin; Ajayi, Taiwo; Seol, Yongkoo The Iġnik Sikumi Field Experiment, Alaska North Slope: Design, operations, and implications for CO2−CH4 exchange in gas hydrate reservoirs
The Iġnik Sikumi Gas Hydrate Exchange Field Experiment was conducted by ConocoPhillips in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, and the U.S. Geological Survey within the Prudhoe Bay Unit on the Alaska North Slope during 2011 and 2012. The primary goals of the program were to (1)...
Boswell, Ray; Schoderbek, David; Collett, Timothy S.; Ohtsuki, Satoshi; White, Mark; Anderson, Brian J.
Test Well Confirms Two Gas Hydrate Reservoirs in Alaska North Slope
In the far north of Alaska, near the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field, an international research consortium has been studying the potential of an altogether different energy source. In late December of 2018, drilling operations confirmed the existence of two high-quality reservoirs that were fully saturated with a potential alternative fuel source: gas hydrate.