vThe
Mallik Project (Goho)
•Is located in the McKenzie
River Delta in Canada’s Northwest Territories
•This research began in the
fall of 2001 with a large team of international scientists.
•This research demonstrated
that natural gas could be obtained from gas hydrates.
(map)
vThe
Nankai Trough
•Off of Japan’s Eastern
Coast (Goho)
•Drilling
began in 2004 with decent success in finding that hydrates were abundant.
(O’Driscoll)
The results
showed that 60 to 70 percent of the sediments’ pores were filled with
hydrates. (Goho)
Starting in 2007,
the Japanese team plans to begin production tests to assess the economic
potential of the trough. If all goes well, the site could be producing
methane by 2016. (Goho)
(map)
vAlaska’s
North Slope (Bradner)
BP Exploration is
working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on a joint research
program to test the North Slope for confirmation of the presence of
hydrates around current oil fields.
•The drilling would be
stratigraphic, in order to gather geologic information about future
drilling.
•No decision about the
actual drilling has been made yet.
One of the
problems related to this area is that removal of the hydrates may cause
the surface to sink and pose risks for nearby oil and gas facilities.
A federal energy
bill was passed in August 2004 which contained two provisions that
encouraged hydrate development.
(map)