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Abstract

Minagawa, H., R. Ohmura, Y. Kamata, J. Nagao, T. Ebinuma, H. Narita, and Y. Masuda, 2009, Water permeability of porous media containing methane hydrate as controlled by the methane-hydrate growth process, 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. 734–739.

DOI:10.1306/13201136M893367

Copyright copy2009 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Water Permeability of Porous Media Containing Methane Hydrate as Controlled by the Methane-hydrate Growth Process

Hideki Minagawa,1 Ryo Ohmura,2 Yasushi Kamata,3 Jiro Nagao,4 Takao Ebinuma,5 Hideo Narita,6 Yoshihiro Masuda7

1National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan
2National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan
3National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan
4National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan
5National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan
6National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan
7Department of Geosystem Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Research Consortium for Methane Hydrate Resources in Japan (MH21 Research Consortium) of the National Methane Hydrate exploitation program planned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) financially supported this work.

ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to clarify the relation between fluid permeability and methane-hydrate saturation (Sh). The ultimate purpose is to estimate the theoretical expression by the equation K = K0(1 minus Sh)N (where K0 is the apparent permeability at Sh = 0 and N is a constant) for input into methane-hydrate numerical simulators. However, the permeability of hydrate-bearing sediment strongly depends on the hydrate saturation, grain-size distribution, porosity, pore-size distribution, hydrate formation method, and so on. To clarify the relation between the permeability and methane-hydrate saturation, we measured the water permeability of methane-hydrate-bearing sediments with different hydrate saturations for three contrasting methane-hydrate formation methods: (1) the connate water reaction method, (2) the gas diffusion method, and the (3) cementing method. The results demonstrate that the rate of decrease in the apparent water permeability (AWP) with increasing methane-hydrate saturation differs for each method of gas-hydrate formation. In addition, the values of K and N in the theoretical expression K = K0(1 minus Sh)N were estimated for each production method, and a different N value was obtained for each hydrate formation method. It is apparent that the method of gas-hydrate formation leads to a contrasting geometry of methane-hydrate growth at the pore scale and in turn affects the macroscopic AWP saturation relations.

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