The Volume of Gas Hydrate‐Bound Gas in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

AbstractThe northern Gulf of Mexico is known to host gas hydrate in submarine sediments. Estimating the amount of gas hydrate for both carbon cycle and resource interest has been ongoing for more than three decades. A large range of estimates (from 0.2 to 680 trillion cubic meters (TCM)) for hydrate‐bound natural gas at standard temperature and pressure exists. We bring a new perspective to resource estimates by using ~800 publicly available petroleum industry well logs assessed for natural gas hydrate. Our resulting probabilistic range of the gas hydrate‐bound natural gas in the northern Gulf of Mexico ranges from 37 TCM (10th percentile estimate) to 78 TCM (90th percentile estimate) of gas hydrate‐bound natural gas, with a mean estimate of 56 TCM. This suggests that the gas hydrate resource density of the northern Gulf of Mexico is 4 times lower than that previously estimated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Our results also indicate that over half of the gas hydrate in the area is strategically hosted in sand reservoirs, which is significantly higher than that previously estimated.