Indian scientists discover natural gas hydrates in the Bay of bengal

Indian scientists have discovered large and highly-enriched accumulations of natural gas hydrates in the Bay of Bengal that has the potential to be tapped, a top US agency which helped in this major discovery has said. Walter Guidroz, coordinator of the US Geological Survey (USGS) Energy Resources Program, said,

Advances like the Bay of Bengal discovery will help unlock the global energy resource potential of gas hydrates as well help define the technology needed to safely produce them.

USGS said this discovery was the result of the most comprehensive gas hydrate field venture in the world to date, made up of scientists from India, Japan and the US. The scientists conducted ocean drilling, conventional sediment coring, pressure coring, downhole logging and analytical activities to assess the geologic occurrence, regional context and characteristics of gas hydrate deposits in the offshore of India, it said yesterday.

This research expedition was called the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02. It is second joint exploration for gas hydrate potential in the Indian Ocean. The first expedition, also a partnership between scientists from India and the US, discovered gas hydrate accumulations, but in formations that are currently unlikely to be producible, a statement said.

Natural gas hydrates are a naturally occurring, ice-like combination of natural gas and water found in the world ‘s oceans and polar regions. Although it is possible to produce natural gas from gas hydrates, there are significant technical challenges, depending on the location and type of formation.

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USGS said the second expedition focussed the exploration and discovery of highly concentrated gas hydrate occurrences in sand reservoirs. The gas hydrate discovered during the second expedition are located in coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and is made up of a sand-rich, gas-hydrate-bearing fan and channel-levee gas hydrate prospects. The next steps for research will involve production testing in these sand reservoirs to determine if natural gas production is practical and economic, it said. USGS Senior Scientist Tim Collett, who participated in the expedition said,

The results from this expedition mark a critical step forward to understanding the energy resource potential of gas hydrates