Gas production from hydrate reservoirs and its modeling

It is estimated that the amount of natural gas trapped in hydrates around the world is approximately two orders of magnitude larger than the recoverable gas in conventional reservoirs. This estimate has attracted governments, especially those with limited access to other sources of fossil fuels, as well as several oil and gas producing companies, to take on projects for drilling and testing hydrate reservoirs. Current objectives include devising methods for fast and safe drilling and testing and for improving characterization techniques, and pilot testing of production techniques such as depressurization and thermal stimulation. Activities are underway in relation to at least three onshore and offshore hydrate accumulations around the world. Running in parallel to these activities, progress is underway in microscopic characterization of hydrates to determine important fluid-flow, heat-transfer, thermodynamics, kinetics, and geomechanical properties. Also, research is in progress toward developing numerical simulators for hydrate reservoirs and acquiring experimental information required for accurate modeling of reservoir behavior.