Methane hydrate resource assessment program. Progress report, April-June 1980

• Main Author: Barraclough, B.L.
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: 03 NATURAL GAS; GAS HYDRATES; RESOURCE ASSESSMENT; NATURAL GAS; CLATHRATES; METHANE; RESEARCH PROGRAMS; ALKANES; ENERGY SOURCES; FLUIDS; FOSSIL FUELS; FUEL GAS; FUELS; GAS FUELS; GASES; HYDRATES; HYDROCARBONS; ORGANIC COMPOUNDS; Arctic; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6922095; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6922095; https://doi.org/10.2172/6922095

This is the first quarterly report describing progress at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory on a program to study the nature, occurrence, and resource potential of methane (natural gas) hydrates. Several options are discussed for fielding an experimental program in the North American arctic, in conjunction with ongoing operations. Analysis indicates that a cooperative program involving DOE/LASL, the Canadian government, and Panarctic Oils, Ltd., fielded at a drilling site in the Canadian Arctic Islands, probably offers the greatest probability of overall program success. A comprehensive series of away-from-hole (remote), downhole, and core measurements, to be performed at a site determined to be underlain with hydrates, is outlined. Objectives and progress of a laboratory effort to study synthetic hydrates are briefly described. A preliminary energy-balance-type analysis of hydrate formation stimulation by hot fluid injection, indicates significant, but probably uneconomic (for the arctic), rates of natural gas production might be feasible.