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Images of the base of gas hydrate stability in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico

Examples of gas hydrate traps in northwest Walker Ridge and implications for successful well planning

Fugro GeoServices, Houston, Texas, U.S.

Beth A. Kendall

Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corporation, Houston, Texas, U.S.

Corresponding author: dmcconnell@fugro.com

Corresponding author: bkendall@kmg.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Assessments of possible drilling hazards associated with buried gas hydrate have been neglected because modeling the base of gas hydrate stability (BGHS) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has been difficult. Predrill prognoses in the geohazards industry are based primarily on the interpretation of seismic data. Seismic interpreters in the geohazards industry and in academia looking for the base of gas hydrate stability have been seeking a "bottom simulating reflector" or BSR in the seismic data such as the famous BSR at Blake Ridge, offshore South Carolina (Figure 1). BSRs like the one in Blake Ridge are prominent in some hydrocarbon provinces elsewhere in the world, but few, if any, convincing BSRs have been identified in the north-central deepwater Gulf of Mexico. This is surprising because the northwest Gulf of Mexico has been covered by good quality and intensely scrutinized 3D seismic data and patchily but adequately sampled with high-resolution 2D seismic. The deepwater Gulf of Mexico is a proven gas province, and there is ample direct evidence from seafloor sampling and from manned and unmanned submersibles of gases venting through the shallowest seafloor sediments (Figure 2).

View larger version (114K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. Bottom simulating reflector (BSR) from Blake Ridge, offshore South Carolina showing boreholes. Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 164.

View larger version (119K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 2. Seafloor seep and gas hydrate mound in GC 232 at water depth of 570 m photographed from Johnson Sea-Link manned submersible. Note chemosynthetic community (tubeworms) on the gas hydrate outcrop.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. A. Jackson Seismic evidence for gas hydrates in the North Makassar Basin, Indonesia Petroleum Geoscience, July 1, 2004; 10(3): 227 - 238. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]