Images of the base of gas hydrate stability in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico: Examples of gas hydrate traps in northwest Walker Ridge and implications for successful well planning

Abstract

Assessments of possible drilling hazards associated with buried gas hydrate have been neglected because modeling the base of gas hydrate stability (BGHS) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has been difficult. Predrill prognoses in the geohazards industry are based primarily on the interpretation of seismic data. Seismic interpreters in the geohazards industry and in academia looking for the base of gas hydrate stability have been seeking a “bottom simulating reflector” or BSR in the seismic data such as the famous BSR at Blake Ridge, offshore South Carolina (Figure 1). BSRs like the one in Blake Ridge are prominent in some hydrocarbon provinces elsewhere in the world, but few, if any, convincing BSRs have been identified in the north-central deepwater Gulf of Mexico. This is surprising because the northwest Gulf of Mexico has been covered by good quality and intensely scrutinized 3D seismic data and patchily but adequately sampled with high-resolution 2D seismic. The deepwater Gulf of Mexico is a proven gas ...