Challenges, Uncertainties and Issues Facing Gas Production From Hydrate Deposits in Geologic Systems

G.J. MORIDIS, SPE, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; T.S. COLLETT, SPE, US Geological Survey; M. POOLADI-DARVISH, SPE, University of Calgary and Fekete; S. HANCOCK, SPE, RPS Group; C. SANTAMARINA, Georgia Institute of Technology; R. BOSWELL, US Department of Energy; T. KNEAFSEY, J. RUTQVIST, M. KOWALSKY, and M.T. REAGAN, SPE, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and E.D. SLOAN, A.K. SUM, and C. KOH, Colorado School of Mines

Copyright © 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2010 SPE Shale Gas Production Conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 23 - 25 February 2010.

The current paper complements the Moridis et al. (2009a) review of the status of the effort toward commercial gas production from hydrates. We aim to describe the concept of the gas hydrate petroleum system, to discuss advances, requirement and suggested practices in gas hydrate prospecting and GH deposit characterization, and to review the associated technical, economic and environmental challenges and uncertainties, including: the accurate assessment of producible fractions of the GH resource, the development of methodologies for identifying suitable production targets, the sampling of hydrate-bearing sediments and sample analysis, the analysis and interpretation of geophysical surveys of GH reservoirs, well testing methods and interpretation of the results, geomechanical and reservoir/well stability concerns, well design, operation and installation, field operations and extending production beyond sand-dominated GH reservoirs, monitoring production and geomechanical stability, laboratory investigations, fundamental knowledge of hydrate behavior, the economics of commercial gas production from hydrates, and the associated environmental concerns.

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