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Abstract

Wright, J. F., and S. R. Dallimore, 2009, Progress in laboratory studies of gas hydrate in porous media at the Geological Survey of Canada, in T. Collett, A. Johnson, C. Knapp, and R. Boswell, eds., Natural gas hydrates—Energy resource potential and associated geologic hazards: AAPG Memoir 89, p. 684–704.

DOI:10.1306/13201132M893363

Copyright copy2009 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Progress in Laboratory Studies of Gas Hydrate in Porous Media at the Geological Survey of Canada

J. F. Wright,1 S. R. Dallimore2

1Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.
2Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research received funding support from the Earth Science Sector of Natural Resources Canada, the Program of Energy Research and Development (PERD), the Institute of Applied Energy (IAE-Japan), the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST-Japan), and the Japan National Oil Company (JNOC). The authors also wish to express their appreciation to Bill Winters and Timothy Collett of the U.S. Geological Survey, to John Ripmeester of the National Research Council of Canada, and to Dendy Sloan from the Colorado School of Mines, as well as the many scientists, engineers, and managers involved in the 1998 and 2002 Mallik field programs. The acquisition of natural geologic samples recovered from the Mallik gas-hydrate reservoir was enabled by international partners comprising the 1998 JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 gas-hydrate research well program and the Mallik 2002 gas-hydrate production research well program. Additional support was provided by the Geological Survey of Japan, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

ABSTRACT

In 1996 the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), together with the Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC) and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company Ltd. (JAPEX) began planning and preparations for the 1998 drilling of the JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 gas-hydrate research well at the Mallik site in Canada's Mackenzie delta, Northwest Territories. In the course of that program, and the subsequent Mallik 2002 gas hydrate production research well program, significant progress has been realized with respect to laboratory research into the properties and behavior of gas hydrate in both artificial and natural porous media. This included the establishment of a basic capability to successfully grow gas hydrate within the pore volume of natural sediments and/or synthetic quartz analogs, development of a dielectric technique for direct quantification of gas-hydrate amounts in laboratory test specimens, determination of the thermal conductivity of gas-hydrate-bearing sediments, and documentation of pressure-temperature-salinity influences on gas-hydrate stability in Mallik reservoir sediments. This work has contributed directly to the fundamental understanding of gas-hydrate occurrences in nature, to the specification of appropriate values for critical parameters used in gas-hydrate production models, and to the design and evaluation of practical production scenarios to be employed in an extended production test of a natural-gas-hydrate deposit anticipated in the near future.

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