Modeling of rising methane bubbles during production leaks from the gas hydrate sites of India

Natural gas hydrates is considered as a strategic unconventional clean hydrocarbon resource in the energy sector. Understanding the behavior of the rising methane gas bubbles during production leaks from the deep marine gas hydrate reservoirs well head is essential for environmental impact studies and to design environmental monitoring systems. Numerical model for quantitatively characterizing the vertical dissolution pattern of the wellhead released methane gas bubbles is analyzed for three potential gas hydrate locations in India. Simulation results indicate that the methane bubbles with diameter of 10mm can transport methane gas till 650, 800, and 750m from the seabed in the Krishna-Godavari(KG), Mahanadi and Andaman basins respectively. Results brought out that potential well head damage during methane hydrate production at 1050m water depth could release up to 28m(3) of methane gas, in which 50% of the molar mass shall get dissolved within 40m of water column from the seafloor.