C
Captain Compassion
Guest
Methane Hydrate - The Gas Resource of the Future
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/hydrates/index.html
Program Goal
Provide the knowledge and technologies to fully realize the potential
of methane hydrate in supporting our nation's continued economic
growth, energy security, and environmental protection.
Toward achieving this goal, the DOE program focuses on four key
issues:
Develop the knowledge and technology base to allow commercial
production of methane from domestic hydrate deposits.
Develop tools and knowledge to ensure safe drilling and production of
oil and natural gas located below marine hydrate deposits.
Investigate the impact of hydrate on seafloor stability and deep-sea
life.
Understand the role hydrate play in global processes such as climate
change and the carbon cycle.
A methane hydrate is a cage-like lattice of ice, inside of which are
trapped molecules of methane (the chief constituent of natural gas).
In fact, the name for its parent class of compounds, "clathrates,"
comes from the Latin word meaning "to enclose with bars."
Methane hydrate form in generally two types of geologic settings: (1)
on land in permafrost regions where cold temperatures persist in
shallow sediments, and (2) beneath the ocean floor at water depths
greater than about 500 meters (about 1,640 feet) where high pressures
dominate. The hydrate deposits themselves may be several hundred
meters thick.
Scientists have known about methane hydrate for a century or more.
French scientists studied hydrate in 1890. In the 1930s, as natural
gas pipelines were extended into colder climates, engineers discovered
that hydrate, rather than ice, would form in the lines, often plugging
the flow of gas.
These crystals, although unmistakably a combination of both water and
natural gas, would often form at temperatures well above the freezing
point of ordinary ice. Yet, for the next three decades, methane
hydrate was considered only a nuisance, or at best, a laboratory
oddity.
That viewpoint changed in 1964. In a northern Siberian gas field named
Messoyakha, a Russian drilling crew discovered natural gas in the
"frozen state," or in other words, methane hydrate occurring
naturally. Subsequent reports of potentially vast deposits of "solid"
natural gas in the former Soviet Union intensified interest and sent
geologists worldwide on a search for how -- and where else -- methane
hydrate might occur in nature. In the 1970s, hydrate was found in
ocean sediments.
In late 1981, the drilling vessel Glomar Challenger, assigned by the
National Science Foundation to explore off the coast of Guatemala,
unexpectedly bored into a methane hydrate deposit. Unlike previous
drilling operations which had encountered evidence of hydrate,
researchers onboard the Challenger were able to recover a sample
intact.
Today, methane hydrate has been detected around most continental
margins. Around the United States, large deposits have been identified
and studied in Alaska, the west coast from California to Washington,
the east coast, including the Blake Ridge offshore of the Carolinas,
and in the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed its most detailed
assessment of U.S. gas hydrate resources. The USGS study estimated the
in-place gas resource within the gas hydrate of the United States
ranges from 112,000 trillion cubic feet to 676,000 trillion cubic
feet, with a mean value of 320,000 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Subsequent refinements of the data in 1997 using information from the
Ocean Drilling Program have suggested that the mean should be adjusted
slightly downward, to around 200,000 trillion cubic feet -- still
larger by several orders of magnitude than previously thought and
dwarfing the estimated 1,400 trillion cubic feet of conventional
recoverable gas resources and reserves in the United States.
Worldwide, estimates of the natural gas potential of methane hydrate
approach 400 million trillion cubic feet -- a staggering figure
compared to the 5,500 trillion cubic feet that make up the world's
currently proven gas reserves.
Why the new interest?
If only one percent of the methane hydrate resource could be made
technically and economically recoverable, the United States could more
than double its domestic natural gas resource base.
Natural gas is an important energy source for the domestic economy,
providing almost 23 percent of all energy used. Natural gas has also
proven to be a reliable and efficient energy source that is less
polluting than other fossil fuels and is the least carbon intensive.
Historically, the United States has produced much of the natural gas
it has consumed with the balance imported from Canada through
pipelines, although recently, imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG)
have supplemented imports from Canada. By 2025, the Energy Information
Administration estimates natural gas imports will be more than 2.5
times greater than in 2003, and will supply 28 percent of total
domestic natural gas consumption.
The United States will consume increasing volumes of natural gas well
into the 21st century. U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to
increase from about 22 trillion cubic feet today to nearly 31 trillion
cubic feet in 2025 - a projected increase of over 40 percent.
Natural gas is expected to take on a greater role in power generation,
largely because of increasing pressure for clean fuels and the
relatively low capital costs of building new natural gas-fired power
equipment. Should the nation move to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,
as part of our commitment to greenhouse gas reduction, the use natural
gas potentially could increase even more.
Given the growing demand for natural gas, the development of new,
cost-effective supplies can play a major role in moderating price
increases and ensuring adequate future supplies of natural gas for
American consumers.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/hydrates/index.html
Program Goal
Provide the knowledge and technologies to fully realize the potential
of methane hydrate in supporting our nation's continued economic
growth, energy security, and environmental protection.
Toward achieving this goal, the DOE program focuses on four key
issues:
Develop the knowledge and technology base to allow commercial
production of methane from domestic hydrate deposits.
Develop tools and knowledge to ensure safe drilling and production of
oil and natural gas located below marine hydrate deposits.
Investigate the impact of hydrate on seafloor stability and deep-sea
life.
Understand the role hydrate play in global processes such as climate
change and the carbon cycle.
A methane hydrate is a cage-like lattice of ice, inside of which are
trapped molecules of methane (the chief constituent of natural gas).
In fact, the name for its parent class of compounds, "clathrates,"
comes from the Latin word meaning "to enclose with bars."
Methane hydrate form in generally two types of geologic settings: (1)
on land in permafrost regions where cold temperatures persist in
shallow sediments, and (2) beneath the ocean floor at water depths
greater than about 500 meters (about 1,640 feet) where high pressures
dominate. The hydrate deposits themselves may be several hundred
meters thick.
Scientists have known about methane hydrate for a century or more.
French scientists studied hydrate in 1890. In the 1930s, as natural
gas pipelines were extended into colder climates, engineers discovered
that hydrate, rather than ice, would form in the lines, often plugging
the flow of gas.
These crystals, although unmistakably a combination of both water and
natural gas, would often form at temperatures well above the freezing
point of ordinary ice. Yet, for the next three decades, methane
hydrate was considered only a nuisance, or at best, a laboratory
oddity.
That viewpoint changed in 1964. In a northern Siberian gas field named
Messoyakha, a Russian drilling crew discovered natural gas in the
"frozen state," or in other words, methane hydrate occurring
naturally. Subsequent reports of potentially vast deposits of "solid"
natural gas in the former Soviet Union intensified interest and sent
geologists worldwide on a search for how -- and where else -- methane
hydrate might occur in nature. In the 1970s, hydrate was found in
ocean sediments.
In late 1981, the drilling vessel Glomar Challenger, assigned by the
National Science Foundation to explore off the coast of Guatemala,
unexpectedly bored into a methane hydrate deposit. Unlike previous
drilling operations which had encountered evidence of hydrate,
researchers onboard the Challenger were able to recover a sample
intact.
Today, methane hydrate has been detected around most continental
margins. Around the United States, large deposits have been identified
and studied in Alaska, the west coast from California to Washington,
the east coast, including the Blake Ridge offshore of the Carolinas,
and in the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed its most detailed
assessment of U.S. gas hydrate resources. The USGS study estimated the
in-place gas resource within the gas hydrate of the United States
ranges from 112,000 trillion cubic feet to 676,000 trillion cubic
feet, with a mean value of 320,000 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Subsequent refinements of the data in 1997 using information from the
Ocean Drilling Program have suggested that the mean should be adjusted
slightly downward, to around 200,000 trillion cubic feet -- still
larger by several orders of magnitude than previously thought and
dwarfing the estimated 1,400 trillion cubic feet of conventional
recoverable gas resources and reserves in the United States.
Worldwide, estimates of the natural gas potential of methane hydrate
approach 400 million trillion cubic feet -- a staggering figure
compared to the 5,500 trillion cubic feet that make up the world's
currently proven gas reserves.
Why the new interest?
If only one percent of the methane hydrate resource could be made
technically and economically recoverable, the United States could more
than double its domestic natural gas resource base.
Natural gas is an important energy source for the domestic economy,
providing almost 23 percent of all energy used. Natural gas has also
proven to be a reliable and efficient energy source that is less
polluting than other fossil fuels and is the least carbon intensive.
Historically, the United States has produced much of the natural gas
it has consumed with the balance imported from Canada through
pipelines, although recently, imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG)
have supplemented imports from Canada. By 2025, the Energy Information
Administration estimates natural gas imports will be more than 2.5
times greater than in 2003, and will supply 28 percent of total
domestic natural gas consumption.
The United States will consume increasing volumes of natural gas well
into the 21st century. U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to
increase from about 22 trillion cubic feet today to nearly 31 trillion
cubic feet in 2025 - a projected increase of over 40 percent.
Natural gas is expected to take on a greater role in power generation,
largely because of increasing pressure for clean fuels and the
relatively low capital costs of building new natural gas-fired power
equipment. Should the nation move to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,
as part of our commitment to greenhouse gas reduction, the use natural
gas potentially could increase even more.
Given the growing demand for natural gas, the development of new,
cost-effective supplies can play a major role in moderating price
increases and ensuring adequate future supplies of natural gas for
American consumers.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
