PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE ECONOMICS OF GAS PRODUCTION FROM NATURAL GAS HYDRATES ...

• Main Authors: Walsh, Matt, Hancock, Steve H., Wilson, Scott J., Patil, Shirish, Moridis, George J., Boswell, Ray, Collett, Timothy S., Koh, Carolyn A., Sloan, E. Dendy
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2016
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0041033; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0041033

Economic studies on simulated natural gas hydrate reservoirs have been compiled to estimate the price of natural gas that may lead to economically viable production from the most promising gas hydrate accumulations. As a first estimate, large-scale production of natural gas from North American arctic region Class 1 and Class 2 hydrate deposits will be economically acceptable at gas prices over $CDN2005 10/Mscf and $CDN2005 17/Mscf, respectively, provided the cost of building a pipeline to the nearest distribution point is not prohibitively expensive. These estimates should be seen as rough lower bounds, with positive error bars of $5 and $10, respectively. While these prices represent the best available estimate, the economic evaluation of a specific project is highly dependent on the producibility of the target zone, the amount of gas in place, the associated geologic and depositional environment, existing pipeline infrastructure, and local tariffs and taxes. Class 1 hydrate deposits may be economically ...