Melt ice and get gas

Rosnedra is going to study methane accumulations in frozen water

Russia decided to follow in the footsteps of the United States and Japan and search for alternative sources of hydrocarbons - in particular, to explore the possibilities of industrial production of gas hydrates (methane accumulation in frozen water). At the end of April, Rosnedra sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources a two-year research program to study gas hydrate accumulations at the bottom of the Okhotsk and Black Seas; its implementation is scheduled to begin in 2008, the department told Vremya Novostey. Funding for the program at this stage will amount to about 20 million rubles. Previously, only Gazprom was involved in such research in Russia, but now it has been suspended.

According to geologists from the State Research Center Yuzhmorgeology, gas hydrates are still one of the most promising sources of natural gas with an unconventional extraction method, since approximately 300 cubic meters of methane can be obtained from a cubic meter of such ice. At the same time, gas hydrates are quite widespread in the World Ocean. They are formed at a sea depth of over 400-600 meters at a temperature of no higher than four degrees Celsius and an atmospheric pressure of at least 40 atmospheres. Today, more than two hundred gas hydrate deposits are known, most of which are located on the seabed. According to recent estimates, natural hydrate deposits contain from 10 trillion to 1000 trillion cubic meters of methane, which is comparable to traditional gas reserves. The largest of them are located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Pacific Ocean. In Russia, extensive deposits of gas hydrates have been discovered in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, on the Arctic shelf, in the Black Sea and Lake Baikal. Moreover, at the Messoyakha gas field in Western Siberia, gas hydrates come to the surface, and previously oil workers considered this a serious obstacle to gas production from wells. The extraction of gas hydrates has not yet been carried out, as it requires a lot of technical preparation. After all, when the temperature rises, the ice simply begins to melt, and the gas begins to dissolve in water. With a sudden supply of heat, either a so-called “gas hydrate bomb” is possible (when the pressure inside the formation suddenly decreases and a local explosion occurs, threatening to sink the floating platform), or a “black hole” (if a significant part of the gas hydrate formation breaks away from the bottom and floats, then quickly When melted, it will release a large amount of gas).

The governments of Japan, the USA and Canada are now actively investing in the research of this new type of fuel. As a result, the vast Mallick fields (in the Mackenzie River valley, Canada) with gas reserves of up to 110 billion cubic meters and Nankai (on the Pacific shelf of Japan) with reserves from 4 trillion to 20 trillion cubic meters were identified, where the first experimental drilling and production technologies were tested and where industrial gas production is possible in the future. However, according to geologists, this may not happen before 2010. Gradually, other countries - consumers of energy resources, in particular India, China and Taiwan - are joining the process.

In the Black Sea, research into this phenomenon began in Soviet times. Then hydrate deposits were discovered on the territory of Ukraine and Georgia (later they were found in Türkiye and Bulgaria). Now Ukraine is actively trying to bring its technologies for the extraction of gas hydrates to the market through the Ice-Gashydrate enterprise.

In Russia, according to the proposal of Rosnedra, two centers for the development of this raw material will be allocated by 2010 - in the Black and Okhotsk Seas. Previously, Gazprom was interested in gas hydrates. In 2003, he created a working group to study this issue under the auspices of VNIIGaz, his industry institute, which immediately announced that, according to preliminary estimates, natural gas resources in gas hydrates in Russia amount to about 1,400 trillion cubic meters. The concern has not yet gone further, but it is unlikely to let go of this alternative source, since in the event of large-scale discoveries of these deposits, gas hydrates will allow, if not increasing production, then increasing the company’s hydrocarbon reserves by more than 50 times.

Anna GORSHKOVA