Methane Hydrates

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Capitol Hill Oceans Week 2003 Rayburn House
Office Building - Washington, D.C. June 11, 2003
Methane Hydrates An Earth System Science
Perspective
Dr. Frank R. Rack, Joint Oceanographic
Institutions 1755 Massachusetts Ave., NW Suite
700 Washington, D.C. 20036-2102 Tel (202)
939-1624 Fax [phone] Email
frack_at_joiscience.org http//www.joiscience.org
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General Outline of this Presentation

• What are methane hydrates and where are they
  found?
• Accomplishments of scientific ocean drilling
  (DSDP, ODP) in support of global,
  interdisciplinary methane hydrate research.
• Key methane hydrate research topics and
  questions industry perspective on methane
  hydrate resource potential.
• What have we learned about naturally-occurring
  marine methane hydrates? Adopting an Earth
  System Science approach to methane hydrate
  research.
• International, industry-led methane hydrate
  research and development projects (Gulf of
  Mexico, Japan, India).
• Summary statement and acknowledgements.

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What are methane hydrates and how do they form?
The term methane hydrate means (A) a methane
clathrate that is in the form of a methane-water
ice-like crystalline material that is stable and
occurs naturally in deep-ocean and permafrost
environments and, (B) other natural gas hydrates
(e.g., ethane, higher order hydrocarbons) that
are found in association with deep-ocean and
permafrost deposits of methane hydrate.
(Section 201 of the Mining and Minerals Policy
Act of 1970, as amended by P.L. 106-193 Methane
Hydrate Research Development Act of 2000)

• Methane Water
• Moderately High Pressures
• Moderately Low Temperatures

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How much methane do hydrates contain?
Hydrate provides very efficient storage of
methane gas (ENERGY). When hydrate is brought to
the surface from depth in the sediments about 164
times the volume of gas is released, along with a
small quantity of water. Global estimates of the
methane stored in hydrate deposits are as large
as 700,000 TCF (trillion cubic feet of gas) U.S.
potential resource estimates are from 100,000 to
300,000 TCF.
Photo by Dr. Gary Klinkhammer Oregon State
University
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Where are hydrates found?
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DSDP/ODP Achievements in Scientific Ocean Drilling
Achievements in scientific ocean drilling have
set the stage for understanding the complex
linkages among the different parts of the dynamic
Earth system (including methane hydrates). The
Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP 1968-1983)
validated the theory of plate tectonics, began to
develop a high-resolution chronology associated
with study of ocean circulation changes, and
carried out preliminary exploration of all of the
major ocean basins except the high Arctic. The
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP 1985-2003),
capitalizing on DSDPs momentum, probed deeper
into the ocean crust to study its architecture,
analyzed convergent margin tectonics and
associated fluid flow, and examined the genesis
and evolution of oceanic plateaus and volcanic
continental margins. ODP has also greatly
extended our knowledge of long- and short-term
climate change. Earth, Oceans and Life
(2001) IODP Initial Science Plan, 2003-2013 For
more information, see URL http//www.iodp.org
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D/V JOIDES Resolution Research Vessel of the
Ocean Drilling Program
The JOIDES Resolution is a uniquely outfitted
dynamically-positioned drill ship, that has a
seven-story laboratory complex onboard. This
vessel has used by the Ocean Drilling Program
(ODP) since 1985 to conduct worldwide scientific
coring operations.
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DSDP/ODP Studies of Naturally-Occurring Oceanic
Methane Hydrate Deposits
Leg 204 Hydrate Ridge
Legs 11, 76 164 Blake Ridge
Leg 201
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DSDP/ODP Methane Hydrate Research
Accomplishments (1970-1990)

• 1970 - 1st BSR drilled, DSDP Leg 11 Blake Ridge
  (offshore Carolinas)
• 1979 - hydrate samples observed in core, DSDP
  Leg 66 W. Mexican Margin
• 1979 - hydrate samples preserved in LN2, DSDP
  Leg 67 Guatemala Margin
• 1980 - 1st use of the Pressure Core Barrel
  (PCB), DSDP Leg 76 Blake Ridge
• 1982 - 1.5 m-long massive hydrate sample
  recovered, DSDP Leg 84
• Guatemala Margin (used in cooperative federal
  hydrate research program)
• 1983 - Microbiology hydrates, DSDP Leg 96
  Gulf of Mexico
• 1986 - Hydrates in slope sediments 1st
  scientific use of the wireline Pressure Core
  Sampler (PCS) ODP Leg 112 Peru Margin
• 1989 - Hydrates in Sea of Japan, ODP Leg 127
  offshore western Japan
• 1990 - Hydrates in Nankai Trough, ODP Leg 131
  offshore eastern Japan

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ODP Methane Hydrate Research Accomplishments
(1991-2003)

• 1992 - Drilled through BSR (installed CORK), Leg
  146 offshore Cascadia Margin (Vancouver Island
  to Oregon - N. Hydrate Ridge)
• 1995 - 1st dedicated hydrate expedition, Leg
  164 Blake Ridge (offshore Carolinas) - using
  geophysical data and drilling to test models
• 1997 - LWD data from hydrate-bearing sediments,
  Leg 170 Costa Rican Margin (ground-truth and
  modeling of geophysical data)
• 2000-2001 - accretionary prism, LWD, advanced
  CORK installations in a region with gas hydrates,
  Legs 190 and 196 Nankai Trough (offshore Japan)
• 2002 - 1st dedicated microbiology expedition,
  Leg 201 Peru Margin (investigating
  interrelationships between hydrates and
  microbiology)
• 2002 - 2nd dedicated hydrate expedition, Leg
  204 southern Hydrate Ridge (offshore Oregon)
  additional funds provided by NSF, DOE/NETL, USGS,
  European Commission (HYACINTH project).

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Where is the gas hydrate stability zone in ocean
sediments?
Thermocline
Figure courtesy of Dr. Bill Dillon (USGS,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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Where is the gas hydrate stability zone in ocean
sediments?
Figure courtesy of Dr. Bill Dillon (USGS,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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Mapping of bottom simulating reflector (BSR)
and gas hydrate distribution - offshore eastern
United States
Location of slope stability slide presented later
in talk
Blake Ridge ODP Leg 164
Figure courtesy of Dr. Bill Dillon (USGS,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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Characteristics of bottom simulating reflector
(BSR) ODP Leg 164 - Blake Ridge and Carolina Rise
Figure courtesy of Dr. Steve Holbrook (University
of Wyoming)
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What do naturally-occurring hydrates look like?
Hydrate sample recovered during ODP Leg 164 on
Blake Ridge
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Examples of gas hydrate distribution in sediment
Figure courtesy of Dr. Tim Collett (USGS) and the
National Research Council of Canada
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Methane Hydrate Natural Laboratory Hydrate
Ridge, Offshore Oregon - ODP Leg 204
Figure courtesy of Dr. Chris Goldfinger (Oregon
State University)
From Trehu, Bohrmann, Rack, et al., 2002. ODP Leg
204 Preliminary Report
Figures courtesy of Dr. Bill Dillon (USGS,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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Instrumented Borehole Observatories for Hydrate
Studies
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Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of
2000 (P.L. 106-193) Interagency (DOE, DOI, DOD,
DOC, NSF) Methane Hydrate Research Program  Key
Questions

• Resource Characterization - What are the
  quantities, locations, and properties of
  naturally-occurring hydrate?
• Safety and Seafloor Stability - What is needed
  to ensure safety and mitigate the environmental
  impacts of hydrate?
• Global Climate Change - What are the
  environmental impacts and the role of hydrate in
  the global carbon cycle?
• Hydrocarbon Production - What is required to
  produce commercial quantities of methane gas from
  hydrates?

Questions modified from DOE/NETL National Hydrate
RD Program overview presentation, Brad Tomer,
August 2000.
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Resource Characterization and Economic
Potential How does industry evaluate a
commercial hydrate prospect?

• hydrocarbon source, timing, and migration
  pathways reservoir rock, seal, stratigraphic or
  structural trap
• infrastructure (e.g., rigs, pipelines if
  already in place, then huge benefit)
• access to acreage (exploration and exploitation
  regulatory framework)
• economic production technology (e.g., passive
  and/or active production methods (1) natural
  hydrate dissociation, (2) lower pressure of
  formation, (3) add heat energy, or (4) inject
  solvents - ethanol, glycol)
• recoverability - rate that selected production
  method(s) can safely get the gas from hydrate out
  of the ground with minimal environmental impact
• basic economic metric gas recovered per well
  drilled (taking into account the daily production
  rate operating cost market price of gas
  competition with other sources of conventional
  energy)
• Expected Value Potential Revenues -
  Production Cost Risk

Summary provided by Dr. Art Johnson (Chevron,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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How might gas hydrates influence slope stability?
Mapping of submarine slope failures shows a
strong relationship between sediment mass
movements and the presence of gas hydrate.
Figure courtesy of Dr. James Booth (USGS) and
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
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How might gas hydrates influence slope stability?
Figure courtesy of Dr. Bill Dillon (USGS,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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Migration of gas along faults and hydrate
formation
Figure courtesy of Dr. Ian MacDonald (Texas AM
University, Corpus Christi)
Figure courtesy of Dr. Bill Dillon (USGS,
retired) and Hydrate Energy International (HEI)
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Biogeochemical Cycles and Chemosynthetic
Communities An Earth System Science Approach
Trehu, Bohrmann, Rack, et al., 2002. ODP Leg 204
Preliminary Report
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Biogeochemical and Fluid Processes on Continental
Margins An Earth System Science Approach
Microbial methanogenesis
Thermogenic hydrocarbon migration from depth
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How are hydrates incorporated into carbon cycle
models?
Conventional Global Carbon Cycle
Accumulation
Modified from Dickens, AGU Monograph 124, 2001
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OH Oxidation
Accumulation
Anaerobic CH4 oxidation or direct injection of
free gas
Aerobic Oxidation
Methanogenesis of organic matter and saturation
of pore waters to form hydrate
Gas Hydrate
Temp.
Free Gas
Modified from Dickens, AGU Monograph 124, 2001
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What have we learned about gas hydrate?

• Hydrate is a frozen crystalline solid consisting
  of cages of water molecules that surround and
  hold gas molecules (primarily methane) inside.
• Hydrate formation requires a source of carbon
  (e.g., methane gas - CH4), fresh water,
  moderately low temperatures and moderately high
  pressures.
• Hydrate deposits are widespread along many
  continental margins, from the seafloor to the
  base of the hydrate stability zone in water
  depths greater than about 500 meters, and in the
  Arctic below the permafrost. Free gas may be
  present below the zone of hydrate stability in
  many areas.
• Hydrate deposits contain a huge quantity of
  stored carbon estimated to be about 2 times the
  amount of carbon stored in all known hydrocarbon
  resources (petroleum, natural gas, and coal, as
  well as less economic resources contained in tar
  sands and oil shales).
• Estimates of the global distribution and volume
  of hydrates are largely based on geophysical
  mapping and interpretation, modeling results,
  and limited ground truth provided by coring and
  drilling.

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What have we learned about gas hydrate?

• Hydrate is unstable at Earth surface conditions
  (i.e., material will change from a solid to a gas
  when removed from the gas hydrate stability
  zone).
• Hydrate deposits in seafloor sediments may
  influence slope stability. Submarine slope
  failure and the mass movement of sediment may
  result from the destabilization of subsurface
  hydrate deposits following a change in stability
  conditions (e.g., change in pressure or
  temperature).
• Hydrates are an unconventional (potential)
  energy resource. Industry seeks to understand
  hydrates to improve operational safety and to
  avoid hazards (e.g., placement of infrastructure
  on seafloor, drilling and production scenarios)
  as well as to understand their resource
  potential.
• Low concentrations of hydrate are associated
  with shales (fine-grained sediments, low energy
  environments) resource potential is probably
  low.
• High concentrations of hydrate are associated
  with sands (coarse-grained sediments, high energy
  environments) higher potential for future
  hydrate exploration and production efforts due to
  higher porosity and permeability.

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Potential Methane Hydrate Prospects Offshore
USA Gulf of Mexico - Outer Continental Shelf and
Slope
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Potential Methane Hydrate Prospects Offshore Japan
MITI Nankai Trough (1999)
Figure courtesy of Dr. Yuichiro Ichikawa (Japan
National Oil Corporation)
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Potential Methane Hydrate Prospects Offshore India
Figure courtesy of Dr. Pushpendra Kumar (Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation, India)
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Methane Hydrate Research Needs

• The rates of hydrate formation and dissociation,
  the periods over which the deposits have formed,
  as well as their interactions with microorganisms
  are not well understood. Without such an
  understanding, it is impossible to accurately
  model the global carbon cycle and to effectively
  model the dynamics and global consequences of
  natural hydrate deposits. Integrated,
  multi-disciplinary scientific expeditions are
  essential for addressing these fundamental
  research questions about hydrates.
• Detailed, high-quality geophysical data (e.g.,
  2-D and 3-D multi-channel seismic, multi-beam
  bathymetry, side-scan sonar surveys) and are
  needed to quantify and characterize the
  distribution and geoacoustic properties of
  hydrates on continental margins. Settings with
  different rates of hydrate formation and
  dissociation and different modes of methane
  transport must then be drilled to provide ground
  truth and observational data to support
  geophysical and model interpretations.
• Long-term monitoring of in situ pressure,
  temperature, fluid flow and other fundamental
  properties and processes related to hydrate
  deposits is required (e.g., using instrumented
  boreholes and seafloor observatories) to
  understand and quantify hydrate dynamics and to
  improve models. Integrated database development
  is essential for the success of these activities
  (e.g., need capability for data fusion).

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Future Scientific Ocean Drilling Plans and ICEY
HOPE
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) will
be established with funding from NSF (U.S.), MEXT
(Japan), and other international partners
beginning in October 2003. Scientific planning
for IODP is underway. The Initial Science Plan
for IODP includes focused studies of the Deep
Biosphere and the Subseafloor Ocean with an
initiative on gas hydrates (for more information
see http//www.iodp.org).
Interdisciplinary Collaborative Expeditions for
a Year of Hydrate Observations and Perturbation
Experiments (ICEY HOPE) Initial concept for a
series of exploratory ocean drilling expeditions
to establish a globally distributed array of
instrumented borehole sites which can be used to
monitor naturally-occurring hydrates from a range
of marine environments (e.g., low to high flux)
to assess rates, reduce uncertainties, and
improve fundamental understanding of dynamic
biogeochemical and physical processes through
time-series measurements, sensor deployments,
perturbation experiments, and integrated
interdisciplinary process studies.
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Acknowledgements
The information presented in this talk represents
a synthesis of the hydrate research efforts and
presentations made by a large number of
colleagues and collaborators. In particular, I
would like to thank the following individuals for
their contributions William Dillon (USGS,
retired), Arthur Johnson (Chevron, retired), and
Michael Max (formerly at NRL), all presently at
Hydrate Energy International (HEI) Tim Collett
(USGS, Denver) Scott Dallimore (Geological
Survey of Canada) Keith Kvenvolden, Tom
Lorenson, Steve Kirby, Laura Stern (USGS, Menlo
Park) Bill Winters, Bill Waite, Debbie
Hutchinson (USGS, Woods Hole) Charles Paull and
William Ussler (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute) Dendy Sloan (Colorado School of
Mines) Carolyn Ruppel (Georgia Institute of
Technology) Gerald Dickens (Rice University)
Miriam Kaster (Scripps Institution of
Oceanography) Mahlon Chuck Kennicutt, William
Bryant, Roger Sassen, William Sager (Texas AM
University) Ian MacDonald (Texas AM University
- Corpus Christi) Steve Holbrook (University of
Wyoming) Jean Whelan (Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution) Harry Roberts (Louisiana State
University) Tom McGee and Robert Woolsey
(University of Mississippi) Emrys Jones, Ben
Bloys, James Schumacher (ChevronTexaco) Tom
Williams (Maurer Technology/Noble Drilling
Corporation) Yuichiro Ichikawa (Japan National
Oil Corporation) Pushpendra Kumar (Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation, India) and the
scientists, engineers, and technical staff
onboard ODP Leg 204 (see following slide). I
would also like to acknowledge the financial
support and encouragement provided by the U.S.
National Science Foundation, Ocean Drilling
Program and the U.S. Department of Energy,
National Energy Technology Laboratory to Joint
Oceanographic Institutions.
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ODP Leg 204 Participants
Co-Chief Scientists Gerhard Bohrmann (GEOMAR,
Christian-Albrechts Universitat zu Kiel, Germany)
and Anne M. Trehu (Oregon State University)
Staff Scientist Frank Rack (Joint Oceanographic
Institutions) Shipboard Scientists Walter S.
Borowski (Eastern Kentucky University), Hitoshi
Tomaru (University of Tokyo, Japan), Marta E.
Torres (Oregon State University), George E.
Claypool (Consultant, Lakewood CO), Young-Joo Lee
(Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral
Resources, Korea), Alexei Milkov (Texas AM
University), Gerald R. Dickens (Rice University),
Timothy S. Collett (U.S. Geological Survey,
Denver), Nathan Bangs (University of Texas at
Austin), Martin Vanneste (University of Tromso,
Norway), Melanie Holland (Arizona State
University), Mark E. Delwiche (Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory), Mahito
Watanabe (Geological Survey of Japan, AIST,
Japan), Char-Shine Liu (National Taiwan
University, Taiwan), Philip E. Long (Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory), Michael Riedel
(Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific Geoscience
Centre, Canada), Peter Schultheiss (GEOTEK Ltd.,
United Kingdom), Eulalia Gracia (Institute of
Earth Sciences, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain), Joel E.
Johnson (Oregon State University), Xin Su (China
University of Geosciences, Peoples Republic of
China), Barbara Teichert (GEOMAR,
Christian-Albrechts Universitat zu Kiel,
Germany), Jill L. Weinberger (Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, University of California, San
Diego), David S. Goldberg (Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, Columbia University), Samantha R.
Barr (University of Leicester, United Kingdom),
Gilles Guèrin (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University) Shipboard Engineers
Michael A. Storms, Derryl Schroeder, and Kevin
Grigar (Ocean Drilling Program, Texas AM
University), Roeland Baas and Floris Tuynder
(Fugro Engineers, The Netherlands), Felix Weise
(Technical University of Clausthal, Germany),
Thjunjoto (Technical University of Berlin,
Germany), Terry Langsdorf and Ko-Min Tjok
(Fugro-McClelland Engineers, USA), Kerry Swain,
Herbert Leyton, Stefan Mrozewski and Khaled
Moudjeber (Schlumberger Offshore Services, USA)
Shipboard Technical Staff Brad Julson, Tim
Bronk, Angie Miller, John Beck, Roy Davis, Jason
Deardorf, Sandy Dillard, Dennis Graham, Jessica
Huckemeyer, Margaret Hastedt, Brian Jones, Peter
Kannberg, Jan Jurie Kotze, Erik Moortgat, Peter
Pretorius, John W.P. Riley, Johanna Suhonen, Paul
Teniere, Robert Wheatley (all at Ocean Drilling
Program, Texas AM University)