Economic Analysis of a Marine Gas Hydrate Operation from the sea floor and its sediments: The case of hydrate bearing sediments in the Atwater Valley

• Main Author: Harskamp, J.P.R. (author)
• Other Authors: Ruiter, J.J. (mentor), Rudolph, E.S.J. (mentor), Van Muijen, H. (mentor), Vercruijsse, P.M. (mentor)
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: hydrates; deep sea mining; natural gas; feasibility study; Arctic; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d15748e5-4cdd-44cc-91a5-1a496a87b584

Natural gas is an important energy source. Recently the world-wide consumption is rapidly increasing due to the growing demand caused by industrial growth and also by shifting to cleaner energy source driven environmental concerns. To satisfy demand also in the future, it is necessary to look for alternatives sources of supply of energy. An alternative could be the gas production from Natural Gas Hydrates (NGH), which are ice-like crystalline compounds that form from water and gas at low temperature and high pressure. NGH are found in subsurface either near the surface in arctic regions or in deep water marine environments. The estimated volume of NGH with respect to energy contains twice the amount of currently recoverable world-wide fossil fuels. IHC Merwede (IHC) is interested in the potential of deep sea mining of NGH. This defines the research question: “Is deep sea mining of gas hydrates from the sea floor and sediments feasible from a technological and economic perspective?” An extensive review of literature on NGH-deposits shows that they exist globally but occur predominantly around the edge of the continents in marginal marine basins and some in permafrost regions. The occurrence of hydrates depends on the temperature, pressure and the kind of gas. Depressurization, thermal- and chemical stimulation are three possible dissociation mechanisms for the production of hydrocarbon gases from NGH. For further research the Atwater Valley in the Gulf of Mexico was chosen based on the high potential and available information about this site. This research was necessary to verify the technological and economic perspective of mining marine natural gas hydrates. The main conclusions concerning the technological perspective were identified: Deep sea mining of gas hydrate bearing sediments (GHBS) is possible from a technological point of view. However, for a reliable feasibility study on potential mining operations of GHBS more research into geological data needs to be done. Nevertheless, this study shows that ...