Global Screening of Gas Hydrates

Gas hydrates have been identified as a possible future hydrocarbon resource. Within the exploration industry various projects have been established to further understand and advance this frontier concept. This presentation will give an overview of results from a recent global basin screening of gas hydrates. The main objective was to define and rank the world's most prospective areas. A conventional exploration risking approach was used to evaluate and risk both offshore and onshore basins for hydrocarbon source, gas migration pathways, reservoir properties and sealing capabilities of the sediments. Seismic data, well logs and other relevant data including public domain data have been analyzed. Approximately 500 onshore and offshore basins have been evaluated and ranked, several of which reveal good to very good gas hydrate potential. Data examples are presented to outline the approach taken in more detail and to illustrate some of the characteristics of typical prospective gas hydrate accumulations. Based on the results of this study, we believe we have localized some of the more interesting "sweet-spots" from an industry perspective. Technological developments, the gas price and the continued increase in demand for energy will define if and when these resources will be exploited on a large scale.