Strategies for gas production from oceanic Class 3 hydrateaccumulations
Gas hydrates are solid crystalline compounds in which gasmolecules are lodged within the lattices of ice crystals. Vast amounts ofCH4 are trapped in gas hydrates, and a significant effort has recentlybegun to evaluate hydrate deposits as a potential energy source. Class 3hydrate deposits are characterized by an isolated Hydrate-Bearing Layer(HBL) that is not in contact with any hydrate-free zone of mobile fluids.The base of the HBL in Class 3 deposits may occur within or at the edgeof the zone of thermodynamic hydrate stability.In this numerical study oflong-term gas production from typical representatives of unfracturedClass 3 deposits, we determine that simple thermal stimulation appears tobe a slow and inefficient production method. Electrical heating and warmwater injection result in very low production rates (4 and 12 MSCFD,respectively) that are orders of magnitude lower than generallyacceptable standards of commercial viability of gas production fromoceanic reservoirs. However, production from depressurization-baseddissociation based on a constant well pressure appears to be a promisingapproach even in deposits characterized by high hydrate saturations. Thisapproach allows the production of very large volumes ofhydrate-originating gas at high rates (>15 MMSCFD, with a long-termaverage of about 8.1 MMSCFD for the reference case) for long times usingconventional technology. Gas production from hydrates is accompanied by asignificant production of water. However, unlike conventional gasreservoirs, the water production rate declines with time. The lowsalinity of the produced water may require care in its disposal. Becauseof the overwhelming advantage of depressurization-based methods, thesensitivity analysis was not extendedto thermal stimulation methods. Thesimulation results indicate that depressurization-induced gas productionfrom oceanic Class 3 deposits increases (and the corresponding waterto-gas ratio decreases) with increasing hydrate temperature (whichdefines the hydrate stability), increasing intrinsic permeability of theHBL, and decreasing hydrate saturation although depletion of the hydratemay complicate the picture in the latter case.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE. Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy.Gas
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 918823
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-62758; R&D Project: G30801; BnR: AB0565000; TRN: US200819%%468
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2007 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston,Texas, 29 April -2 May 2007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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