The connection between natural gas hydrate and bottom-simulating reflectors
Abstract
Bottom-simulating reflectors (BSRs) on marine seismic data are commonly used to identify the presence of natural gas hydrate in marine sediments, although the exact relationship between gas hydrate and BSRs is undefined. In this paper, to clarify this relationship we compile a data set of probable gas hydrate occurrence as appraised from well logs of 788 industry wells in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We combine the well log data set with a data set of BSR distribution in the same area identified from 3-D seismic data. We find that a BSR increases the chances of finding gas hydrate by 2.6 times as opposed to drilling outside a BSR and that the wells within a BSR also contain thicker and higher resistivity hydrate accumulations. Finally, even so, over half of the wells drilled through BSRs have no detectable gas hydrate accumulations and gas hydrate occurrences and BSRs do not coincide in most cases.
- Authors:
-
- The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). School of Earth Sciences
- Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, New Orleans, LA (United States)
- Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Sterling, VA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1469321
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1374486
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FE0009949; FE0023919
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 43; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; bottom-simulating reflector; gas hydrate; Gulf of Mexico
Citation Formats
Majumdar, Urmi, Cook, Ann E., Shedd, William, and Frye, Matthew. The connection between natural gas hydrate and bottom-simulating reflectors. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/2016GL069443.
Majumdar, Urmi, Cook, Ann E., Shedd, William, & Frye, Matthew. The connection between natural gas hydrate and bottom-simulating reflectors. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069443
Majumdar, Urmi, Cook, Ann E., Shedd, William, and Frye, Matthew. Fri .
"The connection between natural gas hydrate and bottom-simulating reflectors". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069443. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1469321.
@article{osti_1469321,
title = {The connection between natural gas hydrate and bottom-simulating reflectors},
author = {Majumdar, Urmi and Cook, Ann E. and Shedd, William and Frye, Matthew},
abstractNote = {Bottom-simulating reflectors (BSRs) on marine seismic data are commonly used to identify the presence of natural gas hydrate in marine sediments, although the exact relationship between gas hydrate and BSRs is undefined. In this paper, to clarify this relationship we compile a data set of probable gas hydrate occurrence as appraised from well logs of 788 industry wells in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We combine the well log data set with a data set of BSR distribution in the same area identified from 3-D seismic data. We find that a BSR increases the chances of finding gas hydrate by 2.6 times as opposed to drilling outside a BSR and that the wells within a BSR also contain thicker and higher resistivity hydrate accumulations. Finally, even so, over half of the wells drilled through BSRs have no detectable gas hydrate accumulations and gas hydrate occurrences and BSRs do not coincide in most cases.},
doi = {10.1002/2016GL069443},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 13,
volume = 43,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Fri Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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