DE-FE0002911

Goal
The objective of this DOE-USGS Interagency Agreement is to provide world-class expertise and research in support of the goals of the 2005 Energy Act for National Methane Hydrates R&D, the DOE-led U.S. interagency roadmap for gas hydrates research, and elements of the USGS mission related to energy resources, global climate, and geohazards. This project extends USGS support to the DOE Methane Hydrate R&D Program previously conducted under DE-AI26-05NT42496.

Performer
U.S. Geological Survey at Woods Hole, MA, Denver, CO, and Menlo Park, CA

Background
The USGS Interagency Agreement (IA) involves laboratory research and international field studies in which DOE/NETL has a significant interest. Geological and geophysical support for these efforts is critical to their success, and the USGS is uniquely qualified to provide this support. This IA is currently divided into five separate tasks.

The primary objective of several tasks is to evaluate the production potential of the known gas hydrate accumulations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), respectively. These tasks are designed as a cooperative research effort among the USGS, DOE, and various industry representatives. The USGS provides technical and scientific leadership and advice for formulation, planning, and implementation of field-based research projects.

In order to develop a better understanding of gas hydrates, the USGS conducts laboratory research to measure the properties of sediments containing synthetic hydrates using a range of experimental methods. These experiments investigate the interactions among gas hydrate, water, and free- or dissolved-phase gas during hydrate nucleation and dissociation, and serve to establish geotechnical indices for studying the properties of natural hydrate-bearing sediments retrieved from pressure core.

The USGS also supports cooperative projects between the U.S. and international partners. USGS scientists provide a range of capabilities from assessing resource potential to providing scientific and operational advice about the formulation of field programs, as well as participating in a scientific leadership capacity during joint field projects.

The USGS is also studying the links between Late Pleistocene to contemporary climate change and the state of the gas hydrate reservoir in high-latitude regions, specifically the U.S. Arctic. As part of this effort, the USGS is investigating a new noble gas fingerprinting technique for gas released from methane hydrates and will conduct field research in the shallow offshore Arctic at locations of rapidly degrading subsea permafrost, which presumably are coincident with hydrate degassing. The offshore work is intended to complement onshore research at lake-based gas seeps on the Alaskan North Slope (see University of Alaska project DE-NT0005665).

Impact
The technical depth of USGS scientists and engineers brings an additional important dimension to the research activities of the DOE Methane Hydrate R&D Program. In the Arctic, decades of geological and geophysical investigation are being brought to bear to help understand the full extent of the hydrate resource and the role of hydrates in high-latitude climate change. USGS research on marine hydrates is making important advances in our understanding of the occurrence and potential hazard of drilling of subsurface gas hydrates in the northern GoM. This information will provide industry with better tools and data as oil and gas development moves into areas where gas hydrates could present potential hazards. USGS scientists are developing new tools and techniques in the laboratory to better understand the hydrate-bearing sediments. USGS and DOE scientists and engineers, along with industry, will work together to gain a better understanding of the nature and distribution of marine gas hydrates and develop this valuable resource.

Accomplishments
The USGS has submitted several abstracts and presented oral and poster presentations at the fall American Geophysical Union Meeting in San Francisco in December 2012. These presentations cover recent research conducted in marine and permafrost gas hydrate systems. USGS and DOE supported research investigating the possible link between methane hydrates and climate change has also been highlighted in several articles in periodicals including Petroleum News (July 15, 2012), USGS Science Features (January 2012) and Nature Education Knowledge (2012).

Two papers pertaining to the physical properties of hydrates were completed: The first, “Anomalous waveforms observed in laboratory-formed gas hydrate-bearing and ice-bearing sediments,” was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in April 2011. The second, “Inter-laboratory comparison of wave velocity measurements in a sand under hydrate-bearing and other set conditions,” was presented in July 2011 at the 7th International Conference on Gas Hydrates (ICGH).

Researchers completed initial studies on the partitioning of noble gas in methane clathrates: Unlike traditional stable isotope measurements, which can only distinguish between microbial and thermogenic methane, USGS researchers have confirmed the unique noble gas fractionation pattern in which the solid hydrate lattice retains, and is enriched in, heavy noble gases (e.g., xenon and krypton) while preferentially excluding lighter noble gases such as argon. This preliminary research utilizing synthetic hydrate samples was presented in a paper at the ICGH in July 2011. A key finding from this initial research was that storage of samples in liquid nitrogen alters the noble gas signature of gas hydrates. The USGS recognized this and was able to collect natural samples from the UBGH2 (Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate) expedition for further noble gas fingerprinting. This technique, if successful, will provide a method of evaluating modern natural gas seeps for a signature associated with gas hydrate dissociation.

USGS contributed to and co-edited the North Slope of Alaska Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well scientific results volume published as a special edition of Marine and Petroleum Geology in February 2011. USGS scientists also coordinated and contributed to a special thematic volume on Gulf of Mexico gas hydrates published in late 2011 in Marine and Petroleum Geology. This special volume highlights results from the 2009 Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project Leg II drilling program.

On March 15 and 16, 2011, the USGS coordinated the assembly of about 20 scientists to review ongoing research and discuss future research priorities focused on the interaction of gas hydrates with the global climate system.

Researchers completed calibration of the Instrumented Pressure Testing Chamber (IPTC) and have conducted testing with pressurized samples at Woods Hole. Testing has been conducted (and is ongoing) with the IPTC on a water saturated sediment core at low pressure to determine the robustness of modifications made to the system since its receipt from Georgia Tech. In recent activities the IPTC has been tested under pressurized conditions of ~25 Mpa. Leakage issues have been resolved and the electronic system has been completed and is ready for testing with the sensors. Other USGS laboratory program tests have focused on establishing optimal parameters (temperature and pressure) or improved efficiency of hydrate formation from dissolved-phase methane. To facilitate these studies, a new automated control and data acquisition process has been developed for a pump in the dissolved-phase system that was previously handled manually.

In early August 2010, the USGS conducted a reconnaissance high-resolution geophysical survey focused on the shallow (up to ~100 meters) subsea floor of Harrison Bay in the Beaufort Sea. The primary goal of the survey was to image the distribution of subsea permafrost and methane as part of an effort to understand the impact of Late Pleistocene to contemporary climate warming on formerly terrestrial permafrost and, possibly, associated methane hydrates. Approximately 185 km of new mini-sparker, Chirp, and sonar data were collected during the cruise, and one sonobuoy was deployed for a short-offset velocity survey. For more information, see the USGS Sound Waves newsletter for October/November 2010. In early August 2011, USGS scientists returned to Harrison Bay to conduct further geophysical surveying of the shallow Beaufort shelf. The surveys included sonar imaging of the water column and seafloor, mini-sparker (penetration up to 100 m subseafloor) seismic and Chirp seismic, collection of short vibracores from gas-charged and gas-free sediments, and surface water sampling for analysis of methane concentrations. These data will be used to determine the depth of subsea permafrost, the seaward extent of thawing permafrost, the distribution of shallow methane in the sediments, and the location of seafloor methane expulsion features and water column methane plumes. The USGS returned again to the North Slope in August 2012 to conduct a site survey of the Beaufort shelf in the area considered most prone to active dissociation of methane hydrate in response to rising sea levels. The project yielded the first modern high-resolution seismic data acquired by non-industry groups across the entire shelf of the U.S. Beaufort since 1977, the first-ever real-time seawater methane map for a circum-Arctic Ocean shelf, and the first suite of methane oxidation rate measurements.

The USGS provided scientific expertise aboard the drillship Fugro Synergy during the UBGH2 expedition. This expedition was funded by the Korean government to examine the gas hydrate in marine sediments east of Korea. The expedition ran from July through the beginning of October 2010 (See Fire in the Ice March 2010). In addition, USGS personnel have been actively engaged in providing technical information and review of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Gas Hydrate study.

Current Status (January 2013)
The USGS continues to provide scientific support to NETL’s Methane Hydrate R&D Program and to gas hydrate and climate change research on a broader scale. The USGS has been active in leading and participating in science community workshops related to potential drilling in the circum-Arctic Ocean region and potential environmental impacts of methane hydrate degassing driven by short (contemporary) and long-term (since Late Pleistocene) climate change.

The USGS is currently planning a 16-day field expedition in the Gulf of Mexico where they will conduct a seismic survey targeting known gas hydrate accumulations at the GC955 and WR313 Joint Industry Partnership (JIP) study sites. In April 2013 the USGS plans to acquire approximately 1400 kilometers of high-resolution 2-D seismic streamer data and concurrently record the seismic sources with an array of ocean-bottom seismometers. This effort will serve to better target future sites for coring.

Project Start: June 1, 2010
Project End: May 31, 2015

DOE Contribution: $1,474,348
Performer Contribution: na

Contact Information:
NETL – Robert Vagnetti (robert.vagnetti@netl.doe.gov or 304-285-1334)
USGS – Carolyn Ruppel (cruppel@usgs.gov or 508-457-2339)
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