WORKING GROUP 2
Working Group Leader
Exploration, production and monitoring technologies
WG 2 will pool professionals active in the development and employment of exploration, production and monitoring technologies in order to stimulate the development of these technologies with respect to their usability and environmental soundness. Up to now, conventional technologies borrowed from the oil and gas industry have been used for exploration and field production tests. These conventional technologies are, however, not appropriate for gas hydrates as they are designed to be operated in sediment depths of
1 - 5 km, whereas gas hydrates occur at much shallower depths of ca. 0 - 0.5 km. Novel down-scaled technologies tailored for the specific properties of gas hydrate deposits have been developed and tested by European research institutes and industries. These include i) new basin modeling software predicting the subsurface distribution of gas hydrates, ii) seismic and electromagnetic systems providing an unprecedented resolution of the 3-D distribution of gas hydrates in the top 0.5 km of the sediment column, iii) mobile low-cost drilling systems being deployed at the seabed to recover up to 200 m long sediment cores at large water depth, and iv) hydro-acoustic systems and chemical sensors for environmental monitoring. These and additional technologies require further development to reduce costs for field development, environmental monitoring and production and to allow for a commercial feasible and environmentally safe production of natural gas from gas hydrate deposits. MIGRATE will develop a plan for a field production test in European waters to test these novel technologies. To achieve these aims WG 2 participants will:
- review existing technologies and identify key areas where further technology development is required to develop gas hydrates as a new resource of natural gas
- assess and employ reservoir modeling tools for the numerical simulation of gas production from hydrate reservoirs
- Identify suitable technologies to minimize geotechnical risks (slope failure), to maintain well stability, and manage sand mobilization during the production process
- develop a technical outline for the production test
- estimate costs for the planned production test
