3.5.7. Subsequent Developments in Methane Hydrate Research

In 1992, the 10-year, eight million dollar program was terminated as government policy shifted from long-term, high-risk R&D to near-term exploration and production R&D. Although DOE funding ceased, work continued at USGS, NRL, NSF, ODP, universities, other laboratories, and overseas.

The 1995 studies of the Blake Ridge, as part of the ODP Leg 164, contributed significantly to the understanding of hydrates.

In 1991 and 1994, DOE sponsored the International Conference on Methane Hydrate R&D so hydrate researchers from all over the world could share results and problems. DOE’s Natural Gas Supply Program provided a small amount of funding in Fiscal Year (FY) 1997 and FY 1998 to support activities in anticipation of the initiation of a new program of methane hydrate research in FY 1999.

These activities included: (1) participation in the production testing and sample analysis of a 1,200-meter deep well in the Mackenzie Delta, Canada, drilled by Japan National Oil Company (JNOC); (2) processing and evaluating seismic data in hydrates regions of the Gulf of Mexico; (3) design of a global database of gas hydrates and related gas deposits; and (4) participation in an industry/university gas hydrates consortium.

The startling success of international drilling programs targeting methane hydrates in Canada and Japan indicated that the commercial exploitation of methane hydrates might be possible sooner than previously thought. DOE began planning for a renewed, multiagency, national, gas hydrates program.

A National Methane Hydrates Program was developed through the cooperative efforts of a multi-agency task force that included representatives of agencies and government entities, and academic institutions, many of which had been actively involved in the work carried out between 1982 and 1993.

The goals for this second phase of research, identified in two workshops in 1998, focused on four areas:

1. Resource characterization,
2. Drilling safety and sea floor stability,
3. Global climate change, and
4. Methane production from hydrates.

• Conduct basic and applied research to identify, explore, assess, and develop methane hydrates as a source of energy;
• Develop technologies for efficient and environmentally sound development of methane hydrate resources;
• Promote education and training in methane-hydrate science;
• Conduct basic and applied R&D to assess and mitigate the environmental impacts of hydrate degassing (both natural and that associated with development);
• Develop technologies to reduce the risks of drilling through methane hydrates, and
• Conduct exploratory drilling in support of the above activities.

• Identify methane hydrate resources through remote sensing;
• Acquire and reprocess seismic data suitable for characterizing methane hydrate accumulations;
• Offer fellowships or other means for graduate education and training; and
• Conduct production testing operations on permafrost and non-permafrost gas hydrates, including drilling of one or more full-scale production test wells.