Exploration & Exploitation of Gas Hydrates and Its Related Environmental Hazards

This reference is for an abstract only. A full paper was not submitted for this conference. Gas hydrates, also known as clathrates are naturally occurring icelike solids in which guest molecules like methane, chlorine, carbon dioxide, nitrogen etc. are entrapped inside host (Water) molecule. It is estimated that 1 m3 of natural gas hydrate can accommodate around 164.3 m3 of methane gas. Volume of carbon contained in methane hydrates worldwide is estimated to be twice the amount contained in all fossil fuels on earth including coal. Also combustion of methane adds significantly less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than combustion of either coal or oil. The NGHP is being monitored by a Steering Committee headed by Secretary, MOP & NG with Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB), ONGC, GAIL etc. as members. The D.G. of Hydrocarbons has drawn up an ambitious plan and prepared Road Map to tap these gas hydrate resources. Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India flagged off the drill ship on April 30 from Mumbai for undertaking drilling, coring and logging activities. The importance of gas hydrates as future source of natural gas is very evident from the above mentioned details and a lot of research work on the techno-commercial aspects of gas hydrates is still in progress across the world. In this paper focus is on the various exploration and exploitation techniques of gas hydrates and its related environmental hazards. Factors affecting the formation of gas hydrates, origin of In-situ gas hydrates and Hydrates stability zones (HSZ) will be discussed. Properties of gas hydrates like acoustic permittivity and various exploration techniques used for the identification of gas hydrates will be analyzed. Application of high frequency electromagnetic field & Gas lifting technique will be discussed and their relative merits and demerits of these techniques will be compared with the help of a case study.