Gas Hydrates

The Gas Hydrates Program is working in full collaboration with other federal agencies, universities, industry, and international partners to advance scientific knowledge of gas hydrates as they occur in nature so that their resource potential can be fully understood.

NETL’s Gas Hydrate Research and Development (R&D) Program integrates field, laboratory and modeling studies to confirm the nature and quantity of the resource and develops and tests technologies for safe production in the future. The program balances NETL’s on-site research with extramural projects in a collaborative, integrated approach.

NETL provides international outreach and communication through its “Fire in the Ice” newsletter, which covers gas hydrate research plans and results, upcoming funding opportunities and meetings, and other events of interest to the worldwide gas hydrate R&D community.

Ongoing research pathways supported by NETL include:

Demonstrating gas hydrate exploration and production technologies on the Alaska North Slope and in the deep-water Gulf of America.
Improving resource characterization for onshore and offshore hydrate accumulations.
Collaborating with international partners to improve production modeling capabilities.
Building laboratory capabilities for testing hydrate samples under in-situ conditions.
Taking an active role in international drilling, sampling and production testing expeditions.
Investing in the future of hydrate research through the National Academies of Science (NAS)/NETL Methane Hydrate Fellowship Program.

Additional Methane Hydrate Program Links

Click here for more