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.
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. Tim’s international gas hydrate activities include cooperative projects with research partners in India, Korea, Japan, China, 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.
Professional Experience
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Research Geologist 1983-present
Education and Certifications
B.S. in geology from Michigan State University
M.S. in geology from the University of Alaska
Ph.D. in geology from the Colorado School of Mines
Science and Products
Results of the India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02
Assessment of Gas Hydrate Resources in the North Slope of Alaska, 2018
Alaska North Slope 2018 Hydrate 01 Stratigraphic Test Well
Gas Hydrates
U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project
Gas Hydrates- Climate and Hydrate Interactions
Gas Hydrates- Energy
Gas Hydrates - Primer
Marine Methane Hydrate Field Research Plan
Successful Test of Gas Hydrate Production Test Well Ignik Sikumi on Alaska's North Slope
Korean National Gas Hydrate Program, Second Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Drilling Expedition
USGS National and Global Oil and Gas Assessment Project-Northern Alaska Province, Gas Hydrate Assessment Unit Boundaries and Assessment Input Data Forms
Pressure Core Characterization Tool Measurements of Compressibility, Permeability, and Shear Strength of Fine-Grained Sediment Collected from Area C, Krishna-Godavari Basin, during India's National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition NGHP-02
Two-dimensional micromodel study of pore-throat clogging by pure fine-grained sediments and natural sediments from the 2015 National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 2 (NGHP-02), offshore India
Physical Properties of Sediment Collected during India's National Gas Hydrate Program NGHP-02 Expedition in the Krishna-Godavari Basin Offshore Eastern India, 2015
Dependence of Sedimentation Behavior on Pore-Fluid Chemistry for Sediment Collected From Area B, Krishna-Godavari Basin During India's National Gas Hydrate Program, NGHP-02
Map showing the depth to the base of the deepest ice-bearing permafrost as determined from well logs, North Slope, Alaska
Regional correlation sections across the north slope of Alaska
Machine learning application to assess occurrence and saturations of methane hydrate in marine deposits offshore India
Characterization of a complex sand-rich gas hydrate reservoir system in the Indian marine continental margin with downhole log and seismic data
Science mission requirements for a globally ranging, riserless drilling vessel for U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling
Geological reservoir characterization of a gas hydrate prospect associated with the Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope
Advanced distributed acoustic sensing vertical seismic profile imaging of an Alaska North Slope gas hydrate field
Gas hydrate saturation estimates, gas hydrate occurrence, and reservoir characteristics based on well log data from the hydrate-01 stratigraphic test well, Alaska North Slope
Alaska North Slope terrestrial gas hydrate systems: Insights from scientific drilling
Northern Cascadia Margin gas hydrates — Regional geophysical surveying, IODP drilling leg 311, and cabled observatory monitoring
A review of the exploration, discovery, and characterization of highly concentrated gas hydrate accumulations in coarse-grained reservoir systems along the Eastern Continental Margin of India
Alaska natural gas hydrate production testing: Test site selection, characterization and testing operations
DAS 3DVSP survey at Stratigraphic Test Well (Hydrate-01)
Multiple physical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments recovered from Alaska North Slope 2018 Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well
Science and Products
- Science
Filter Total Items: 18
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. Coinciding with the release of the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology Special Issue on Marine Gas Hydrate Reservoir Systems Along the Eastern Continental Margin of India: Results of the...Assessment of Gas Hydrate Resources in the North Slope of Alaska, 2018
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has updated the previous 2008 assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas hydrate resources beneath the North Slope of Alaska. This new 2018 assessment again indicates the existence of technically recoverable gas hydrate resources―that is, resources that can be discovered, developed, and produced using current technology. Using a geology-based...Alaska North Slope 2018 Hydrate 01 Stratigraphic Test Well
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are leading an effort to conduct an extended gas hydrate production test in northern Alaska.Gas Hydrates
Central Energy Resources Science Center - Gas Hydrates Project PageU.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project
The USGS Gas Hydrates Project has been making contributions to advance understanding of US and international gas hydrates science for at least three decades. The research group working on gas hydrates at the USGS is among the largest in the US and has expertise in all the major geoscience disciplines, as well as in the physics and chemistry of gas hydrates, the geotechnical properties of hydrate...Gas Hydrates- Climate and Hydrate Interactions
The USGS Gas Hydrates Project focuses on the study of natural gas hydrates in deepwater marine systems and permafrost areas. Breakdown of gas hydrates due to short- or long-term climate change may release methane to the ocean-atmosphere system. As a potent greenhouse gas, methane that reaches the atmosphere from degrading gas hydrate deposits could in turn exacerbate climate warming.Gas Hydrates- Energy
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.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.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 define...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.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 and... - Data
USGS National and Global Oil and Gas Assessment Project-Northern Alaska Province, Gas Hydrate Assessment Unit Boundaries and Assessment Input Data Forms
This data release contains the boundaries of assessment units and input data for the assessment of undiscovered gas hydrate resources on the north slope of Alaska. The Assessment Unit is the fundamental unit used in the National Assessment Project for the assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources. The Assessment Unit is defined within the context of the higher-level Total Petroleum System.Pressure Core Characterization Tool Measurements of Compressibility, Permeability, and Shear Strength of Fine-Grained Sediment Collected from Area C, Krishna-Godavari Basin, during India's National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition NGHP-02
Understanding how effectively methane can be extracted from a gas hydrate reservoir requires knowing how compressible, permeable, and strong the overlying seal sediment is. This data release provides results for flow-through permeability, consolidation, and direct shear measurements made on fine-grained seal sediment from Site NGHP-02-08 offshore eastern India. The sediment was collected in a presTwo-dimensional micromodel study of pore-throat clogging by pure fine-grained sediments and natural sediments from the 2015 National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 2 (NGHP-02), offshore India
Fine-grained sediments, or "fines," are nearly ubiquitous in natural sediments, even in the predominantly coarse-grained sediments that host gas hydrates. Fines within these sandy sediments can be mobilized and subsequently clog flow pathways while methane is being extracted from gas hydrate as an energy resource. Using two-dimensional (2D) micromodels to test the conditions in which clogging occuPhysical Properties of Sediment Collected during India's National Gas Hydrate Program NGHP-02 Expedition in the Krishna-Godavari Basin Offshore Eastern India, 2015
During the spring and summer of 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey participated in India's National Gas Hydrate Program NGHP-02 expedition in the Krishna-Godavari Basin offshore eastern India. The expedition included conventional and pressure coring of sediment, samples of which were transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods Hole, MA for post-cruise testing. This data release contains measuDependence of Sedimentation Behavior on Pore-Fluid Chemistry for Sediment Collected From Area B, Krishna-Godavari Basin During India's National Gas Hydrate Program, NGHP-02
One goal of the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program's NGHP-02 expedition was to examine the geomechanical response of marine sediment to the extraction of methane from gas hydrate found offshore eastern India in the Bay of Bengal. Methane gas hydrate is a naturally occurring crystalline solid that sequesters methane in individual molecular cages in a lattice of water molecules. Methane gas hydrate - Maps
Map showing the depth to the base of the deepest ice-bearing permafrost as determined from well logs, North Slope, Alaska
Because gas hydrates from within a limited temperature range, subsurface equilibrium temperature data are necessary to calculate the depth and thickness of the gas-hydrate stability field. Acquiring these data is difficult because drilling activity often disrupts equilibrium temperatures in the subsurface, and a well mush lie undisturbed until thermal equilibrium is reestablished (Lachenbruch andRegional correlation sections across the north slope of Alaska
No abstract available. - Multimedia
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 178
Machine learning application to assess occurrence and saturations of methane hydrate in marine deposits offshore India
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were used to assess methane hydrate occurrence and saturation in marine sediments offshore India. The ANN analysis classifies the gas hydrate occurrence into three types: methane hydrate in pore space, methane hydrate in fractures, or no methane hydrate. Further, predicted saturation characterizes the volume of gas hydrate with respect to the available void volume.AuthorsLeebyn Chong, Timothy Collett, C. Gabriel Creason, Yongkoo Seol, E.M. MyshakinCharacterization of a complex sand-rich gas hydrate reservoir system in the Indian marine continental margin with downhole log and seismic data
Logging-while-drilling (LWD) and coring data were acquired in Areas A, B, C and E during the National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 (NGHP-02). At Sites NGHP-02-16, −17, −20, −23 and −24 of Area B in the Indian Krishna-Godavari Basin, the gas hydrate-bearing sand-rich reservoirs directly in contact with an underlying water-saturated sediment were revealed near the seismic-inferred bottom simulaAuthorsJilin Zhou, Xiujuan Wang, Timothy Collett, Sanxhong Li, Zenggui Kuang, Yintao Lu, Wei Deng, Weichao Yan, Jin Qian, Jiapeng JinScience mission requirements for a globally ranging, riserless drilling vessel for U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling
Through the collection and analysis of shallow and deep subseafloor sediments, rocks, fluids, and life, scientific ocean drilling has enriched our understanding of the complex Earth system. Among other achievements, scientific ocean drilling has documented the history of Earth’s climate, the waxing and waning of polar ice sheets, the past changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation, the existenceAuthorsStephanie A Carr, Timothy Collett, Justin P. Dodd, Patricia Fryer, Patrick Fulton, Sean P. S. Gulick, Hiroko Kitajima, Anthony A.P. Koppers, Basia Marcks, D. Jay Miller, Yair Rosenthal, Angela Slagle, Masako Tominaga, Marta E. Torres, Julia WellnerGeological reservoir characterization of a gas hydrate prospect associated with the Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope
Geological reservoir characterization is essential for accurate evaluation of gas production performance from gas hydrate reservoirs. Particularly, the understanding of reservoir architecture and heterogeneity is of great importance since these are considered as major controls on fluid hydrodynamic and thermodynamic conditions. This study deals with well log and three-dimensional (3-D) vertical seAuthorsMachiko Tamaki, Akira Fujimoto, Ray Boswell, Timothy CollettAdvanced distributed acoustic sensing vertical seismic profile imaging of an Alaska North Slope gas hydrate field
Gas hydrates are found in significant quantities on the North Slope of Alaska in subpermafrost sand units and intermixed in lower portions of permafrost within the hydrate stability window. While conventional surface seismic data and established imaging methods can indicate the presence of gas hydrate reservoirs, producing high-resolution images of (seismically) thin layers remains challenging dueAuthorsCullen Young, Jeffrey Shragge, Whitney Shultz, Seth S. Haines, Can Oren, James Simmons, Timothy CollettGas hydrate saturation estimates, gas hydrate occurrence, and reservoir characteristics based on well log data from the hydrate-01 stratigraphic test well, Alaska North Slope
The Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well was drilled at the Kuparuk 7-11-12 site on the Alaska North Slope in December 2018. Sonic log data provide compressional (P) and shear (S) slowness from which we determine gas hydrate saturation (Sgh) estimates using effective medium theory. The sonic Sgh estimates compare favorably with Sgh estimated from resistivity and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logsAuthorsSeth S. Haines, Timothy Collett, Jun Yoneda, Naoyuki Shimoda, Ray Boswell, Norihiro OkinakaAlaska North Slope terrestrial gas hydrate systems: Insights from scientific drilling
A wealth of information has been accumulated regarding the occurrence of gas hydrates in nature, leading to significant advancements in our understanding of the geologic controls on their occurrence in both the terrestrial and marine settings of the Arctic. Gas hydrate accumulations discovered in the Alaska North Slope have been the focus of several important geoscience and production testing reseAuthorsTimothy S. Collett, Ray M. Boswell, Margarita V. ZyrianovaNorthern Cascadia Margin gas hydrates — Regional geophysical surveying, IODP drilling leg 311, and cabled observatory monitoring
This article reviews extensive geophysical survey data, ocean drilling results and long-term seafloor monitoring that constrain the distribution and concentration of gas hydrates within the accretionary prism of the northern Cascadia subduction margin, located offshore Vancouver Island in Canada. Seismic surveys and geologic studies conducted since the 1980s have mapped the bottom simulating refleAuthorsMichael Riedel, Timothy S. Collett, Martin Scherwath, John W. Pohlman, Roy Hyndman, George SpenceA review of the exploration, discovery, and characterization of highly concentrated gas hydrate accumulations in coarse-grained reservoir systems along the Eastern Continental Margin of India
The analysis of 3-D seismic data has become one of the most powerful ways to identify sand-rich gas hydrate reservoir systems and to directly identify highly concentrated gas hydrate prospects. Scientific drilling programs have shown that the occurrence of highly concentrated gas hydrate accumulations in coarse-grained, sand-rich, reservoir systems has a significant impact on the physical propertiAuthorsTimothy S. Collett, Krishan Chopra, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Ray Boswell, William F. Waite, A. K. Misra, Pushpendra KumarAlaska natural gas hydrate production testing: Test site selection, characterization and testing operations
This Interagency Agreement supports the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its research partners in understanding, predicting, and testing the recoverability and potential production characteristics of onshore natural gas hydrate in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area on the Alaska North Slope (ANS: Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk River, and Milne Point areas) or other areas deemed suitable by DOE and USGS for potAuthorsTimothy CollettDAS 3DVSP survey at Stratigraphic Test Well (Hydrate-01)
This proceeding outlines the acquisition, processing, and fault interpretation of the largest known onshore distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) 3D vertical seismic profile (VSP) survey. This survey was carried out to detect the distribution of faults near the gas hydrate research well (Stratigraphic Test Well: Hydrate-01) on the North Slope of Alaska within the Prudhoe Bay Unit (PBU). The data wereAuthorsAkira Fujimoto, Teck Kean Lim, Machiko Tamaki, Kyojiro Kawaguchi, Toshiaki Kobayashi, Seth S. Haines, Timothy Collett, Ray BoswellMultiple physical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments recovered from Alaska North Slope 2018 Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well
Knowledge of the petrophysical and geomechanical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments is essential for predicting reservoir responses to gas production from gas hydrate reservoirs. In December 2018, Stratigraphic Test Well Hydrate-01 was drilled in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope, as part of the technical planning effort for a future long-term gas hydrate producAuthorsJun Yoneda, Yusuke Jin, Michihiro Muraoka, Motoi Oshima, Kiyofumi Suzuki, Mike Walker, Donald Westacott, Satoshi Otsuki, Kenichi Kumagai, Timothy Collett, Ray Boswell, Norihiro Okinaka - News