Methane Production From Hydrate Bearing Formations

Demand for natural gas is ever increasing and
according to DOE, by 2040, 10 Tcf/yr of gas has to be
imported. Interest in the potentially large deposits
of natural gas hydrates and hydrate capped gas
reservoirs is increasing because a conservative
estimate of gas hydrate reserve potential of US
exclusive economic zone is 200,000 Tcf. If 1% of this
were recovered, that would be greater than the
cumulative gas reserves of conventional gas sources
(1000-1500 Tcf). Even 1% production of this recovered
gas per year would make USA the exporter of gas.

Currently, most of the work is based on the
laboratory studies since an important part of
developing commercial gas production technology is
predicting the methane production rates for various
field operating scenarios using models.

The objective of the proposed work is to study the
effect of various reservoir properties (water
saturation, hydrate permeability, rock permeability,
thickness of the reservoir, porosity) on the
production of gas from a hydrate-bearing reservoir. A
mathematical model was developed to study production
concepts for natural gas hydrate accumulations.

Autorentext

B.S Mechanical Enginnering.M.S Petroleum Engineering.Present:LWD/MWD EngineerThru Tubing Re-Entry Coiled Tubing Directional DrillingBaker Hughes InteqAlaska, U.S.A

Klappentext

Demand for natural gas is ever increasing andaccording to DOE, by 2040, 10 Tcf/yr of gas has to beimported. Interest in the potentially large depositsof natural gas hydrates and hydrate capped gasreservoirs is increasing because a conservativeestimate of gas hydrate reserve potential of USexclusive economic zone is 200,000 Tcf. If 1% of thiswere recovered, that would be greater than thecumulative gas reserves of conventional gas sources(1000-1500 Tcf). Even 1% production of this recoveredgas per year would make USA the exporter of gas.Currently, most of the work is based on thelaboratory studies since an important part ofdeveloping commercial gas production technology ispredicting the methane production rates for variousfield operating scenarios using models.The objective of the proposed work is to study theeffect of various reservoir properties (watersaturation, hydrate permeability, rock permeability,thickness of the reservoir, porosity) on theproduction of gas from a hydrate-bearing reservoir. Amathematical model was developed to study productionconcepts for natural gas hydrate accumulations.