Mechanisms for methane transport and hydrate accumulation in coarse-grained reservoirs

Lead PI: Dr. Alberto Malinverno
Unit Affiliation: Marine and Polar Geophysics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
October 2013 - March 2018
Inactive
; Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
Project Type: Research

DESCRIPTION: The project goal is to evaluate whether the transport of methane, and the specific mechanism by which it is transported, are the primary controls on the development of persistent, massive hydrate accumulations in sediments below the seabed. The dissolved methane flux and time required to develop the accumulations observed at Walker Ridge Block 313 (WR313) in the northern Gulf of Mexico by long-distance updip migration or by short-distance local migration will be studied and defined within the scope of this research. Researchers will also determine whether there is enough methane in the dissolved phase in the fine-grained sediments to form the observed hydrate deposits or whether a gas phase is present and, if so, what the conditions are for three-phase equilibrium.

SPONSOR: University of Texas at Austin
ORIGINATING SPONSOR: Department of Energy
FUNDED AMOUNT: $322,885
RESEARCH TEAM: Hugh Daigle, Ann E. Cook
EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS: University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State University
PUBLICATIONS: Nole, M., Daigle, H., Cook, A. E., and Malinverno, A., Short-range, overpressure-driven methane migration in coarse-grained gas hydrate reservoirs, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, doi:10.1002/2016GL070096, 2016. Nole, M., Daigle, H., Cook, A. E., Hillman, J. I. T., and Malinverno, A., Linking basin-scale and pore-scale gas hydrate distribution patterns in diffusion-dominated marine hydrate systems, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 18, doi:10.1002/2016GC006662, 2017. Hillman, J., Cook, A. E., Daigle, H., Nole, M., Malinverno, A., Meazell, K., and Flemings, P. B., Gas hydrate reservoirs and gas migration pathways in the Terrebonne Basin, Gulf of Mexico, Mar. Petr. Geol., 86, 1357-1373, doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.07.029, 2017. Malinverno, A., Cook, A. E., Daigle, H., and Oryan, B., Glacial cycles influence marine methane hydrate formation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, doi:10.1002/2017GL075848, 2018.

KEYWORDS

dissolved methane flux methane transport methanogenesis migration hydrate accumulation marine sediments

Research Projects

Mechanisms for methane transport and hydrate accumulation in coarse-grained reservoirs

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Keyword: dissolved methane flux