Methane Production From Hydrate Bearing Formations

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 200000 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 permeabilitythickness 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.