In a July 25 press release, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said there are large amounts of potentially producible gas hydrates in the Bay of Bengal, in the first discovery of its kind in the Indian Ocean that could be producible.
The USGS assisted the government of India on the discovery through the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02, which was the second joint exploration for gas hydrate potential in the Indian Ocean.
Ocean drilling, conventional sediment coring, pressure coring, downhole logging and analytical activities were conducted to assess the geologic occurrence, regional context and characteristics of gas hydrate deposits offshore India.
The gas hydrates discovered are located in coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems in the Krishna-Godavari Basin. Tests will be carried out in these sand reservoirs to determine if natural gas production is practical and economic.
The international team of scientists was led by India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. on behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas India.
The Japanese Drilling Co. and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology also participated, and the USGS is working with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology-Japan to analyze pressure core samples.
The first expedition, which was also a partnership between scientists from India and the U.S., discovered gas hydrate accumulations in formations that are currently unlikely to be producible.
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