SITE SELECTION FOR DOE/JIP GAS HYDRATE DRILLING IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO Deborah R. Hutchinson1 *, Dianna Shelander2 , Jianchun Dai2 , Dan McConnell3 , William Shedd4 , Matthew Frye5 , Carolyn Ruppel1 , Ray Boswell6 , Emrys Jones7 , Tim Collett8 , Kelly Rose6 , Brandon Dugan9 , Warren Wood10, Tom Latham7 1 U.S. Geological Survey 384 Woods Hole Rd. Woods Hole, MA 02543 2 Schlumberger 10001 Richmond Avenue Houston, TX 77042 3 AOA Geophysics, Inc. 2500 Tanglewilde Avenue, Suite 120 Houston, TX 77063 4 Minerals Management Service 1201 Elmwood Park Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70123 5 Minerals Management Service 381 Elden Street Herndon, VA 20170 6 U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Lab 3610 Collins Ferry Rd., Morgantown, WV, 26507 7 Chevron Energy Technology Corporation 1500 Louisiana Street Houston, TX 77002 8 U.S. Geological Survey Denver Federal Center, Box 25046, Mailstop-939, Denver, CO 80225 9 Rice University Department of Earth Science 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005 10U.S. Naval Research Lab, Code 7432, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529 ABSTRACT In the late spring of 2008, the Chevron-led Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project (JIP) expects to conduct an exploratory drilling and logging campaign to better understand gas hydrate-bearing sands in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The JIP Site Selection team selected three areas to test alternative geological models and geophysical interpretations supporting the existence of potential high gas hydrate saturations in reservoir-quality sands. The three sites are near existing drill holes which provide geological and geophysical constraints in Alaminos Canyon (AC) lease block 818, Green Canyon (GC) 955, and Walker Ridge (WR) 313. At the AC818 site, gas hydrate is interpreted to occur within the Oligocene Frio volcaniclastic sand at the crest of a fold that is shallow enough to be in the hydrate stability zone. Drilling at GC955 will sample a faulted, buried Pleistocene channel-levee system in an area characterized by seafloor fluid expulsion features, structural closure associated with uplifted salt, and abundant seismic evidence for upward migration of fluids and gas into the sand-rich parts of the sedimentary section.
