AAPG Memoir 74, Chapter 7: Natural-Gas Hydrates, Resource of the Twenty-First Century?, by T. S. Collett, Pages 85-108
from: AAPG Memoir 74: Petroleum Provinces of the Twenty-first Century, Edited by Marlan W. Downey, Jack C. Threet, and William A. Morgan
>Copyright 2001 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Chapter 7
Natural-gas Hydrates: Resource
of the Twenty-first Century?

Timothy S. Collett
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

Although considerable uncertainty and disagreement prevail concerning the world's gas-hydrate resources, the estimated amount of gas in those gas-hydrate accumulations greatly exceeds the volume of known conventional gas reserves. However, the role that gas hydrates will play in contributing to the world's energy requirements will ultimately depend less on the volume of gas-hydrate resources than on the cost to extract them.