Gazprom and research institutes will study gas hydrates
Release
The working meeting “Current state of global gas hydrates studies and their practical results for the gas industry” led by Alexander Ananenkov, Gazprom’s Management Committee Deputy Chairman, was held yesterday at Gazprom’s head office.
Representatives of Gazprom’s core departments, corporate research institutes (VNIIGAZ, Promgaz), and specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ research centers, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Gubkin Oil and Gas State Univercity, NIPIoceangeophisika, VNIIOceanGeologia, Vympel and Sevmorneftegaz took part in the meeting. The participants discussed the main directions of gas hydrate studies.
Gas hydrates are considered the most promising source of natural gas. Gas hydrates are a crystal substance looking like a snow or ice, which contain natural gas in its structure. Gas hydrates are located in permafrost or oceans and seas’ underwater sediments. According to the VNIIGAZ-conducted preliminary estimates, natural gas resources embedded in gas hydrate formations in Russia reach 1,400 tcm. One cubic meter of gas hydrates allows to produce up to 160 cubic meters of natural gas.
The participants stressed that in the past decade specialized national programs envisaging intensive research and detailed geophysical and exploration surveys for searching gas hydrate fields were launched in the USA, Canada, Japan, China and India with the governmental support. In Russia, researches for gas hydrates are just fledging; the work in this direction is poorly coordinated.
Based on the discussion held, a decision on establishing an interdepartmental working group staffed by experts from Gazprom, Russian Academy of Sciences’ institutes, academic institutions and other research centers to draw out the inter-industrial Program for Development and Application of Gas Hydrate Exploration and Production Technologies and Methods for Storing and Transporting Gas in Gas Hydrate State for 2004–2010 was taken. The implementation of the Program will make it possible to enlarge Gazprom’s resource base.
Information Directorate, OAO Gazprom