Gas Hydrates

Gas Hydrate: Ice-like cage structure

that traps gases.
Several types & sizes of cage
structures formed by water molecules
Gas could be Methane, Carbon
Dioxide, Ethane, Butane, Propane,
Hydrogen Sulfide Source: U.S. Geological Survey

Concentrates gas with a ratio of ~

1:160 (One cubic foot of gas hydrate
contains 160 cubic feet of gas at
STP)
5 ingredients for hydrate formation :
Water, Gas, High Pressure, Low 1

Temperature, Nucleation site

 Identification of Hydrates

BSR = Bottom simulating reflector

The change in physical properties of sediment due to presence
of hydrates and underlying free gas enable detection of 2

hydrates due to velocity contrast.

 Affects both Drilling and
Production
Gas hydrate apparently
cements sediment,
therefore, has significant
Hydrates Form On effect on sediment
Exterior of Subsea
Equipment strength

Heat From Buried Hydrates Dissociation

Pipelines Cause Affects Foundation of
Hydrate Dissociation Surface Facilities?

Heat From Production

Wells Causes Hydrate
Dissociation
Potential impact of Its formation and
Natural Gas hydrates in breakdown may influence
the sea floor sediments the occurrence and
on Deepwater location of submarine3
Production facilities landslides
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)
In shallow clear waters, Air borne
LiDARs are used. Red light to
reflect from sea surface and Green
to penetrate to Sea bed. Difference
is water depth
In other cases, LiDAR Sensors are
placed on Tripods or ROVs along
with Calibration targets on the Sea
bed and scanned

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Acoustic Imaging using CHIRP
(3 KHz 40 KHz)
Subsea companies
like Pangeo provide
Wide Lateral
Acoustic Coring
Designed to replace
pingers and boomers

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Pangeo Subsea

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Example of conventional seismic vs Acoustic core
 Coring and CPT
Downhole Samplers and CPT (Cone Penetration
Test) are the most widely used techniques.
Provides the ground truth
A standard Cone tip is pushed into the sea-bed at
constant rate of penetration
Strain gauges on the Cone
assembly measure
resulting forces. After
applying corrections like
pore pressure, overburden
the curves are matched to
standard maps that give
Soil mechanical strength
properties
Sensors like thermal and
electrical conductivity may 7
be added to cone
ROVs and AUVs
ROV = Remotely Operated Vehicle
AUV = Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

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Putting it all together for
Interpretation
All data is
stored and
managed on a
Geo Database

Different
datasets may be
combined to
produce
different
visualizations,
interpretations,
displays and
reports

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This report shows Amplitude anomalies

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 Visualization

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2D High resolution seismic with 3D cube

 Visualization

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Sidescan Sonar draped on bathymetry with seabed features
 Examples (Coral)
Geo-hazard & Mitigation

Multibeam Data Side Scan Sonar Mosaic

CORAL- Impact for anchoring and rig placement activity 13

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Seabed Features with revised Anchor Pattern
 Examples (Shallow channel)
Geo-hazard & Mitigation
Seismic Section
Equalized Data-EQL

SHALLOW PALEO CHANNEL-Potential to jack-up rig punch 15

through
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Sub Bottom Profile- Sparker Data
Examples (Shallow Gas)
Geo-hazard & Mitigation
Seismic Section Real
Amplitude Pulse

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Anomaly Pattern in Drawing Chart

Sub Bottom Profile Sparker Data

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Lesson 2: Exploration and Drilling

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New Technique to acquire seismic data for Reservoir Monitoring

OCEAN BED SEISMIC

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 What lies beneath
Without light you wont see anything
Grab a torch to illuminate the object.
You see an object, its the right size but are you sure of its position?
Look at it from all possible angles
Look at it from different distances
What is the nature of the object. What color is it for example?
Think about the light you are using to illuminate it and dont forget you wearing
sunglasses Sean
What if there it was at the shallow end of the pool and there was a big airbed
floating above it?
Youd need to get close to the surface and maybe a mirror would be helpful
What if the jacuzzi is on with bubbles obscuring your view?
Wouldnt it be useful to see through the bubbles?
Is the box empty or full?
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Wouldnt it be great to be able to give it a poke with a stick and see how it feels?
 Whats in the Tool box
Torch Light = sound wave
Looking from different directions = full azimuth data
From different distances = Full offset data
White light = Broadband sound
Seeing past the obstruction = listening on the seabed
bouncing waves off the sea surface
Seeing through bubbles = shear waves
Determining characteristics of the material in question =
inversion using shear waves

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Conventional seismic
acquisition with tow streamers
2D 3D

Method utilized for O&G exploration since 70s 2D and 3D

Method utilized for Reservoir Characterization and Monitoring
since 90s 3D and 4D
Method still utilized today for most of the projects in O&G E&P
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 3D seismic acquisition
principle

Sometime offshore
installations already present
might obstruct Swath
streamers
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 3D Seismic positioning
system

A typical 6 x 8 kilometre long streamer spread, for example, will require 25

42 XSRS units to derive a position solution with range redundancy.
3D Survey issues

Source tied to Receivers gives Narrow Azimuth

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 Azimuth

A conventional tow streamer can deliver several azimuths by

making multiple passes 27
4D seismic principle
The
Fourth
dimension
is time

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 Ocean Bottom Cables (OBC)
Method utilized mainly
for reservoir
characterization and
monitoring
Seismic Source
detached from the
Receivers, therefore
more flexibility to
acquire on obstructed
areas
Receivers in OBCs laid
Wide azimuth data acquisition on the sea floor,
Marine seismic acquisition using OBC is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_91yjjrMaw
Capability to acquire29the
shear wave