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-resolution seismic characterization of the gas and gas hydrate system at Green Canyon 955, Gulf of Mexico, USA
Preface to the special issue on gas hydrate drilling in the Eastern Nankai Trough
Cruise report for P1-13-LA, U.S. Geological Survey gas hydrates research cruise, R/V Pelican April 18 to May 3, 2013, deepwater Gulf of Mexico
Physical properties of sediment from the Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope
Scientific results from Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrates Joint Industry Project Leg 1 drilling: Introduction and overview
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-resolution seismic characterization of the gas and gas hydrate system at Green Canyon 955, Gulf of Mexico, USA
Preface to the special issue on gas hydrate drilling in the Eastern Nankai Trough
Cruise report for P1-13-LA, U.S. Geological Survey gas hydrates research cruise, R/V Pelican April 18 to May 3, 2013, deepwater Gulf of Mexico
Physical properties of sediment from the Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope
Scientific results from Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrates Joint Industry Project Leg 1 drilling: Introduction and overview
News associated with the Gas Hydrates Energy Project