3.5.4. Major Contracted Gas Hydrates Projects

Listed below are the key projects undertaken during the 1983-1992 time frame.

The primary Project Manager for the Methane Hydrate program during this time period was the late Rodney D. Malone. Also acting as a Project Manager for portions of the work was William Lawson.

Geochemical and Geologic Factors Effecting the Formulation of Gas Hydrate
Contract: DE-AI21-83-MC20422
Performer: U.S. Geological Survey (Menlo Park, CA)
Key Investigators: Keith Kvenvolden, G.E. Claypool
Time Period: Oct. 1983 – Sept. 1987
Objectives: The broad objectives of this project were to:

• Evaluate geochemical and geological conditions at sites where high methane concentrations and gas hydrates are found,
• Determine factors controlling generation and accumulation of methane in gas hydrates,
• Make regional and worldwide syntheses of marine gas hydrate occurrences, and
• Develop predictive models for gas hydrate occurrence in oceanic sediment. The approach was to:
• Review geophysical evidence for marine gas hydrate occurrence,
• Participate in oceanographic and deep sea drilling expeditions to collect samples of suspected marine gas hydrates,
• Characterize known sedimentary occurrences of gas hydrates or high methane contents by a standard suite of geochemical analyses,
• Perform controlled decomposition experiments on naturally occurring or artificially synthesized gas hydrates,
• Review and synthesize the geological and geochemical factors associated with marine gas hydrate occurrence,
• Develop a kinetic model of microbial methanogenesis with geological factors as input parameters which predicts the amount and isotopic composition of methane formed, and
• Use the model in conjunction with marine geology to predict sites favorable for, and the potential worldwide extent of, marine gas hydrates.

• Define and evaluate possible gas hydrate reservoirs,
• Evaluate geologic/geochemical controls on gas hydrate occurrences,
• Develop a model for terrestrial gas hydrate formation,
• Conduct a gas hydrate resource estimate, and
• Select a coring site to study gas hydrate. Task 18 objectives were:
• Collect and analyze geologic/geochemical samples relative to gas hydrates,
• Conduct precision temperature surveys to determine: 1) equilibrium formation temperatures; 2) limits of the gas hydrate stability and permafrost regions; 3) geothermal gradients and heat flow; and 4) possible in situ thermal indications of gas hydrate occurrences,
• Conduct borehole gravity surveys to detect gas hydrate, determine reservoir porosity and provides density measurements to better understand thermal properties,
• Characterize formation water chemistry, and
• Model the seismic character of in situ gas hydrates.

• Evaluation of the hydrates recovered from the Glomar Challenger drill ship during an expedition to the Mid-America Trench,
• Measurement of the heat capacity and heat of dissociation of the hydrates, using a modified differential scanning calorimitry (DSC) technique,
• Construction of an electrobalance apparatus to measure the dissociation rates of hydrates, including pressure, temperature and mass change with time, and
• Formulation of a rigorous mathematical model for hydrate dissociation, which would incorporate the properties measured and match the rates measured.

• Gather data and information relevant to gas hydrates on the Alaskan North Slope, including geothermal gradient data, remote sensing data, permafrost depth and thickness data, seismic data, and oil and gas well locations,
• Review gas hydrate literature to compile information related to gas hydrate equilibrium data and predictive models, gas hydrate recovery models, and geologic occurrence of hydrates,
• Develop contacts within the petroleum industry in the State of Alaska to obtain access to logs, cores and water samples,
• Study the implications of dissociation of in situ gas hydrate deposits relative to drilling safety and subsidence,
• Conduct experimental and theoretical modeling work related to techniques for recovery of gas from hydrates (depressurization, hot water, brine, methanol, glycol and steam injection), including measurement of permeability changes during formation and dissociation of hydrates in porous media, and to
• Perform an experimental study of hydrate formation in the presence of Alaskan North Slope crudes to understand

• Identification of hydrate sites in deep water Gulf of Mexico sediments,
• Collection of physical samples of hydrates from deepwater locations in the Gulf of Mexico for use in laboratory analysis,
• Assessment of thermogenic versus biogenic nature of gas from hydrate locations in the Gulf of Mexico,
• Collection of shallow seismic data over identified hydrate sites and assessment of the relationship of seismic anomalies and subsurface structure,
• Evaluation of historical seismic records for evidence of potential hydrate-containing sediments in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and
• Chemical and isotopic characterization of hydrate core material.