What you really do not want to do
is actually melt the water. CO2
displacement is a good idea and combining that with some reduction in pressure
and extensive reservoir fracturing with propane perhaps and we may develop a
neat and efficient recovery system
Fracking with brine should also
generate a great deal of gas.
The truth of it all is that we
need to see a number of experiments funded and undertaken. The same thing happened in the tarsands and
it took many emergent technologies to slowly master the resource. We are likely to see the same thing happen
here and it is early days for this monumental resource.
Methane has the advantage of been
a nice cheap way to heat a house and may well sustain a market even with the
new reactors coming out that will bring electrical power way down in price.
On the other hand I am very
nervous about the future of the hydrocarbon industry because of the pending
change in the global energy equation.
Newly Installed Alaska NorthSlope Well
Will Test Hydrate Production Tech
by Staff Writers
A fully instrumented well that will test innovative technologies for producing methane gas from hydrate deposits has been safely installed on the North Slope of Alaska. As a result, the "Ignik Sikumi" (Inupiaq for "fire in the ice") gashydrate field trial well will be available for field experiments as early as winter 2011-12.
The well, the result of a partnership between ConocoPhillips and the
Office of Fossil Energy's (FE) National Energy Technology Laboratory, will
test a technology that involves injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) into sandstone
reservoirs containing methane hydrate.
Laboratory studies indicate that the CO2 molecules will replace the
methane molecules within the solid hydrate lattice, resulting in the
simultaneous sequestration of CO2 in a solid hydrate structure and production
of methane gas.
Methane hydrate consists of molecules of natural gas trapped
in an open rigid framework of water molecules. It occurs in sediments within
and below thick permafrost in Arctic regions, and in the subsurface of most
continental waters with a depth of ~1,500 feet or greater.
Many experts believe it represents a potentially vast source of global
energy and FE scientists have studied methane hydrate resource potential
and production technologies for more than two decades. Researchers are
addressing such important issues as seafloor stability, drilling safety, and a
range of environmental issues, including gas hydrate's role in changing
climates.
The recently completed operations include the acquisition of a
research-level suite of measurements through the sub-permafrost hydrate-bearing
sediments. The data confirm the occurrence of 160 feet of gas-hydrate-bearing
sand reservoirs in four separate zones, as predicted, and provide insight into
their physical and mechanical properties.
An array of down-hole pressure-temperature gauges were installed in the
well, as well as a continuous fiber-optic temperature sensor outside the well
casing, which will monitor the well as it returns to natural conditions
following the drilling program.
In coming months, field trial participants will review the data to
determine the optimal parameters for future field testing. Current plans are to
re-enter the well in a future winter drilling season, and conduct a 1-2 month
program of CO2 injection and well production to assess the efficiency of the
exchange process.
Following those tests, the remaining time available before the spring
thaw (as much as 40 days) may be used to test reservoir response to pressure
reduction in the wellbore.
This alternative
methane-production method, "depressurization," recently proved
effective during short-term testing conducted by the governments of Japan and Canada
at a site in northwestern Canada
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