Gulf of Mexico Hydrates/DOE

Provide preliminary seismic profile data and necessary laboratory information to access gas hydrate accumulations in the regions of the Gulf of Mexico. DOE has been funding gas hydrate research to understand three issues identified by USGS as important research questions: to understand the hazard that hydrates pose to drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (done in cooperation with Chevron/Texaco Joint Industry Project, JIP); to understand the resource potential of hydrates as an unconventional energy source (focusing on the permafrost areas of the Mackenzie Delta and northern Alaska); and to understand the relationship between hydrates and climate change (academia has the lead here). The focus of the work in this project is on hydrates as a hazard to drilling (in the Gulf of Mexico) and hydrates as a potential energy resource (in permafrost areas).

To utilize geophysical and laboratory data to learn about natural hydrate relationships.

Physical testing of gas hydrate-bearing sediments will be done at the GHASTLI lab at Woods Hole; field programs to collect seismic reflection data will be conducted jointly by Woods Hole and Menlo Park

Hydrates as an energy source, hydrates as an agent of global change, and hydrates as a factor in seafloor stability and geohazards.