The gritty potential of fire ice - methane hydrate
- Estimates of methane hydrate reserves vary from 10,000 to 100,000 TCF
- 100,000 TCF of Methane Hydrate could meet global gas demand for 800 years
- Cost of extraction is currently above $20/mln BTUs but may soon fall rapidly
- Japan METI estimate production costs falling to $7/mln BTUs over the next 20 years
On June 6th Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the resumption of gas production tests under the Second Offshore Methane Hydrate Production Test this is what they said:
Concerning the second offshore methane hydrate production test, since May 4, 2017, ANRE has been advancing a gas production test in the offshore sea area along Atsumi Peninsula to Shima Peninsula (Daini Atsumi Knoll) using the deep sea drilling vessel “Chikyu.” However, on May 15, 2017, it decided to suspend the test due to a significant amount of sand entering a gas production well.
In response, ANRE advanced an operation for switching the gas production wells from the first one to the second one for which a different preventive measure against sand entry is in place. Following this effort, on May 31, 2017, it began a depressurization operation and, on June 5, 2017, confirmed the production of gas.
Sand flowing into the well samples has been a gritty problem for the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) since 2013. They continue to invest because Japan relies on imports for the majority of its energy needs, especially since the reduction in nuclear capacity after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. It has been in the vanguard of research into the commercial extraction of methane hydrate or ‘fire ice’ as it is more prosaically known.
Methane hydrates are solid ice-like crystals formed from a mixture of methane and water at specific pressure in the deep ocean or at low temperature closer to the surface in permafrost. For a primer on methane hydrate and its potential, this November 2012 article from the EIA - Potential of gas hydrates is great, but practical development is far off – may be instructive but a picture is worth a thousand words.
To read the entire report, please click on the pdf file below: