Placemarks are of well heads that have their end of tubing inside the Tarn & Eileen Methane Hydrate Zone Boundaries.

2D placemarks
yellow dot = well head
red dot = end of tubing
brown line = simulation of tubing (not actual)



The Northwest Eileen State No. 2 well drilled above the Prudhoe Bay field in 1972 discovered the Eileen trend and oil wells drilled in the central North Slope have encountered gas hydrates in the two known trends. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the trends contain as much as 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Development of gas hydrates under North Slope permafrost faces some daunting challenges: there are known ways of extracting gas from the hydrates but no one has yet proved an economically viable way of achieving the extraction. Extracted from: Oct. 2006- North Slope exploration plans shaping up




3D placemarks
* wellhead set to 3000m
* yellow dot = well head
* red dot = end of tubing
* brown line = simulation of tubing (not actual)




Kuparuk River Unit - 3D
* actual EOT VDepth
* w/ 300' thick hydrate @ 2000' below wellhead pad




Production techniques
To assess the economics of developing the gas hydrates it is necessary to look at potential techniques for disassociating the hydrates into gas and water within a reservoir � different techniques incur different costs for development and production.

Reducing the reservoir pressure by extracting free gas adjacent to the hydrates offers the simplest approach. The pressure reduction causes the gas hydrate to start to disassociate. Continued extraction of gas then keeps the reservoir pressure low and causes more and more hydrate to break down.

�The key is finding that free gas association with the hydrate,� Hunter said.

Where there is no free gas, it is necessary to apply heat or chemicals.

For example, raising the reservoir temperature will release gas from the hydrates. So the team has been looking at different techniques for pumping heat down well holes. Intriguingly, there is the possibility of employing the same heating techniques as those already in use for nearby heavy oil production.

�The gas hydrates are in similar geographic locations (to heavy oil) on the North Slope,� Hunter said.

The location of gas hydrate deposits above producing oil fields might also enable hot fluids from the oil fields to be piped through the gas hydrate reservoirs.

Chemical methods of disassociating the hydrates involve pumping materials such as salt or methanol into the reservoirs.

Extracted from: 2005- North Slope gas hydrates starting to look feasible


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I suspect some of these well bores will eventually be converted over to Hydrate production, Pull existing tubing, perforate, hydraulic fracture, circulate acids, set packoff, give it a bit of thermal stimulation and hope for the best. - Click for Wiki text on Completion


Can you Imagine replacing Alaska's Oil/Gas Well count with Hydrate wells ?
1980's approx 2000 wells
1990's approx 2000 wells
2000 to 2006 approx 2000 wells


well & hydrate data source: Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources - Div. of Oil & Gas