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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 106, No. 5 (May 2022), P. 1005-1023.

Copyright ©2022. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1306/06022120134

Methane migration mechanisms for the Green Canyon Block 955 Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate reservoir, northern Gulf of Mexico

Li Wei,1 Ann Cook,2 and Kehua You3

1School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; present address: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York; [email protected]
2School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; [email protected]
3Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

In marine continental margins, high saturations of natural Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate are observed within the Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate stability zone, but the Previous HitgasNext Hit migration pathways to the hydrate reservoir are not commonly clear. We focus on a site in Green Canyon Block 955 (GC 955) in the Gulf of Mexico, where Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate occurs in a 35-m-thick reservoir with saturations of 79%–93% in numerous centimeter- to decimeter-thick sandy silt layers and little to no Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate in the interbedded centimeter- to decimeter-thick clayey silt layers. Different Previous HitdataNext Hit sets (well logging, coring, and seismic Previous HitdataNext Hit) suggest different types of potential methane migration mechanisms. For example, relatively high particulate organic carbon content in the reservoir and the microbial methane source indicated by Previous HitgasNext Hit chromatography and methane isotopes suggest Previous HitgasNext Hit might be made locally and migration could occur through dissolved methane sources or water advection. In contrast, the visible deeply rooted faults intersecting the Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate reservoir and the Previous HitgasNext Hit pockets adjacent to the faults on seismic Previous HitdataNext Hit suggest that free Previous HitgasNext Hit may migrate directly into the reservoir. We tested three different mechanisms to form Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate at GC 955: short-range methane diffusion, short-range methane diffusion coupled with upward water advection, and free Previous HitgasNext Hit flow. The one-dimensional and two-dimensional numerical models show that both the short-range migration and the upward water advection are not enough to form high saturations Previous HitgasNext Hit hydrate at GC 955, and that free Previous HitgasNext Hit flow is required to form the high saturations of Previous HitgasTop hydrate observed at GC 955.

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