Gas-hydrate-bearing sand reservoir systems in the offshore of India: Results of the India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02

P. Kumar; Timothy S. Collett; K. Vishwanath; K.M. Shukla; J. Nagalingam; M.V. Lall; Y Yamada; P. Schultheiss; M. Holland

Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70170565

Gas-hydrate-bearing sand reservoir systems in the offshore of India: Results of the India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02

P. Kumar·Timothy S. Collett·K. Vishwanath·K.M. Shukla·J. Nagalingam·M.V. Lall·Y Yamada·P. Schultheiss·M. Holland

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 (NGHP-02) was conducted from 3-March-2015 to 28-July-2015 off the eastern coast of India using the deepwater drilling vessel Chikyu . The primary goal of this expedition was to explore for highly saturated gas hydrate occurrences in sand reservoirs that would become targets for future production tests. The first two months of the expedition were dedicated to logging-whiledrilling (LWD) operations, with a total of 25 holes drilled and logged. The next three months were dedicated to coring operations at 10 of the most promising sites. With a total of five months of continuous field operations, the expedition was the most comprehensive dedicated gas hydrate investigation ever undertaken.

Explore related subjects

Fire in the Ice: NETL Methane Hydrate Newsletter Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 7.18810087117902° to 26.27371402440643° latitude; 76.11328125° to 90.703125° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

P. Kumar, Timothy S. Collett, K. Vishwanath, K.M. Shukla, J. Nagalingam, M.V. Lall, Y Yamada, P. Schultheiss, M. Holland. 2016. Gas-hydrate-bearing sand reservoir systems in the offshore of India: Results of the India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70170565

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2019

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 duration test of the response to gas hydrate reservoirs to controlled depressurization. The Stratigraphic Test Well (formally “PBU Hydrate-01”) was operated by the PBU Operator BP Exploration, (Alaska), Inc. (BPXA) using the Parker 272 drilling rig (Figure 1) through a Drilling Services Agreement executed with Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska (PRA) in association with a contract between NETL and PRA. The science program executed by BPXA was developed over a two-year period through extensive discussions and scientific evaluation undertaken by NETL, the Japan, Oil, Gas, and Metals, National Corporation (JOGMEC), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and PRA. The effort also benefitted greatly from the support of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (ADNR) and the PBU Working Interest Owners (WIOs).

Alaska↗

USGS2011

Electrical properties of methane hydrate + sediment mixtures

As part of our DOE-funded proposal to characterize gas hydrate in the Gulf of Mexico using marine electromagnetic methods, a collaboration between SIO, LLNL, and USGS with the goal of measuring the electrical properties of lab-created methane (CH 4 ) hydrate and sediment mixtures was formed. We examined samples with known characteristics to better relate electrical properties measured in the field to specific gas hydrate concentration and distribution patterns. Here we discuss first-ever electrical conductivity (σ) measurements on unmixed CH 4 hydrate (Du Frane et al., 2011): 6 x 10-5 S/m at 5 °C, which is ~5 orders of magnitude lower than seawater. This difference allows electromagnetic (EM) techniques to distinguish highly resistive gas hydrate deposits from conductive water saturated sediments in EM field surveys. More recently, we performed measurements on CH 4 hydrate mixed with sediment and we also discuss those initial findings here. Our results on samples free of liquid water are important for predicting conductivity of sediments with pores highly saturated with gas hydrate, and are an essential starting point for comprehensive mixing models.

Fire in the Ice: NETL Methane Hydrate Newsletter↗

USGS2009

Permafrost gas hydrates and climate change: Lake-based seep studies on the Alaskan north slope

The potential interactions between climate change and methane hydrate destabilization are among the most societally-relevant aspects of gas hydrates research. Massive dissociation of deep marine methane hydrates following rapid Earth warming is the most plausible explanation for carbon isotopic data that imply widespread release of microbial methane during the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (~55 million years ago), and massive methane hydrate degradation may have been associated with a major warming event in the Late Neoproterozoic as well. . On contemporary Earth, circumstantial evidence implies that permafrost-associated methane hydrate dissociation, possibly related to climate change, may be contributing to gas seeps in the MacKenzie Delta (Dallimore et al., 2008). Gas is also currently being released from shallow subseafloor hydrates in some areas, and transient bottom water temperature increases are sometimes known to be the destabilizing influence for these gas hydrates. Still, there is no direct evidence that gas hydrates are currently undergoing significant and systematic destabilization on contemporary Earth, that climate processes are responsible for driving any destabilization that may be occurring, or that methane released from dissociating hydrate is a substantial contributor to atmospheric methane concentrations.

Alaska↗