Abstract
Natural gas hydrate (NGH) is unique among conventional and unconventional gas resources. It is a stable, solid crystalline material in its reservoir. All NGH deposits worldwide will be ideally found in partially consolidated marine sediments and sand or coarser beds within about 1 km or less from the seafloor, making them easily accessible from the seafloor. Most of these will be turbidite sands similar to those that are older and more deeply buried, which may host conventional oil and gas deposits. NGH deposits are generally not associated with oil or hazardous chemicals. When NGH is inexpensively converted to its constituent gas and water, the resulting natural gas and water facilitate unique drilling opportunities. NGH deposits have very low environmental risk , even in remote regions such as the environmentally sensitive Polar Regions. The unique characteristics of NGH concentrations will potentially allow inexpensive exploration , reservoir characterization, and production opportunities. In particular, there are opportunities in drilling and reservoir wellbore plans and new technologies for NGH exploitation that could provide an innovative pulse to offshore energy operations.
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Max, M.D., Johnson (Deceased), A.H. (2019). Deepwater Natural Gas Hydrate Innovation Opportunities. In: Exploration and Production of Oceanic Natural Gas Hydrate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00401-9_6
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