Analysis of the Black Sea Gas Hydrates

Authors: Sukru Merey, Caglar Sinayuc

Abstract:

Gas hydrate deposits which are found in deep ocean sediments and in permafrost regions are supposed to be a fossil fuel reserve for the future. The Black Sea is also considered rich in terms of gas hydrates. It abundantly contains gas hydrates as methane (CH₄~80 to 99.9%) source. In this study, by using the literature, seismic and other data of the Black Sea such as salinity, porosity of the sediments, common gas type, temperature distribution and pressure gradient, the optimum gas production method for the Black Sea gas hydrates was selected as mainly depressurization method. Numerical simulations were run to analyze gas production from gas hydrate deposited in turbidites in the Black Sea by depressurization.

Keywords: Black Sea hydrates, depressurization, turbidites, HydrateResSim.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1125767

References:

[1] J.J. Carroll, Natural Gas Hydrates, 2nd Edition A Guide for Engineers. Gulf Professional Publishing, 2009.
[2] E.D. Sloan, E.D. and Koh, C.A., Clathrate Hydrates of Natural Gases, 3rd Edition, Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, 2008.
[3] K. Abid, G. Spagnoli, C. Teodoriu, G. Falcone, “Review of pressure coring systems for offshore gas hydrates research” Underwater Technology, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 19–30, 2015.
[4] A.H. Johnson, “Global Resource Potential of Gas Hydrate–A New Calculation” in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Gas Hydrates (ICGH 2011), Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, July 17-21, 2011.
[5] Z.R. Chong, S.H..B Yang, P. Babu, P. Linga, X.S. Li, “Review of natural gas hydrates as an energy resource: Prospects and challenges” Applied Energy 2016, 162, 1633-1652.
[6] J. Overmann, A.K. Manske, Past and Present Water Column Anoxia. Leiden, the Netherlands: Springer, 2006.
[7] J.W. Murray, “Black Sea oceanography. Results from the 1988 Black Sea expedition”. Deep Sea Res. 38:S655–S126, 1991.
[8] E.V. Stanev, Y. He, J. Staneva, E. Yakushev, “Mixing in the black sea detected from the temporal and spatial variability of oxygen and sulfide and ash; Argo float observations and numerical modelling” Biogeosciences, 11(20), 5707–5732, 2014.
[9] V.I. Starostenko, O.M. Rusakov, F.F., Shnyukov, V.P. Kobolev, R.I. Kutas, R.I. “Methane in the northern Black Sea: characterization of its geomorphological and geological environments”. Geological Society, London, Special Publications-2010-Starostenko-57-75, 2010.
[10] N.H. Kenyon, M.K. Ivanov, A.M. Akhmetzhanov, G.G. Akhmanov, “Geological Processes in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and North East Atlantic- Preliminary results of investigations during the TTR-11 cruise of RV Professor Logachev” Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission technical series 62. SC-2002/WS/62, July-September, 2001.
[11] A. Vassilev, L. Dimitrov, “Model Evaluation of the Black Sea Gas Hydrates”. Tome 56, No.3, 2003.
[12] S. Merey, C. Sinayuc, C. “Investigation of gas hydrate potential of the Black Sea and modelling of gas production from a hypothetical Class 1 methane hydrate reservoir in the Black Sea conditions” Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 29, 66–79, 2016.
[13] I. Popescu, M. De Batist, G. Lericolais, H. Nouzé, J. Poort, N. Panin, W. Versteeg, H. Gillet, “Multiple bottom-simulating reflections in the Black Sea: Potential proxies of past climate conditions” Marine Geology, 227(3-4), 163–176, 2006.
[14] H.M. Küçük, D, Dondurur, Ö. Özel, Ç. Sınayuç, Ş. Merey, M. Parlaktuna, G. Çifçi, G “Acoustic Investigations of Gas and Gas Hydrate Formations, offshore southwestern Black Sea.”in American Geophysical Union-Fall Meeting, December 14-18, 2015, San Francisco, USA.
[15] G.J. Moridis, T.S. Collett, R. Boswell, S. Hancock, J. Rutqvist, C. Santamarina, T. Kneafsey, M.T. Reagan, M.P. Darvish, M. Kowalsky, E.D. Sloan, C. Koh, Chapter 37: Gas Hydrates as a Potential Energy Source: State of Knowledge and Challenges-Lee, W.J. (ed.) Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2013.
[16] C.G. Xu, X. Li, “Research Progress on Methane Production from Gas Hydrates” RSC Adv.,5, 54672-54699, 2015.
[17] M. Haeckel1, J. Bialas, L. Klaucke, K. Wallmann, G. Bohrmann, K. Schwalenberg, “Gas Hydrate Occurrences in the Black Sea – New Observations from the German Sugar Project” Fire in the Ice. Methane Hydrate Newsletter. 015 Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2015.
[18] J. Xing, Seismoacoustic Study of the Shallow Gas Transport and Reservoirs in the Vicinity of Seabed Fluid Seepage of the Black Sea” PhD Thesis, Im Fachbereich der Geowissenschaften der Universität Bremen, Germany, 2013.
[19] B.C. Kneller, Sedimentology. Part of the series Encyclopedia of Earth Science pp 1250-1256, 2003.
[20] Y. Ye, C. Liu, Natural Gas Hydrates, Experimental Techniques, Springer Geophysics, 2013.
[21] M. Kurihara, “Gas Production from Methane Hydrate Reservoirs” in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Gas Hydrates (ICGH 2011), Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, July 17-21, 2011.
[22] A. Demirbas, “Methane from Gas Hydrates in the Black Sea” Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 32(2), 165–171, 2009.
[23] G.J. Moridis, M.B. Kowalsky, “Gas Production from Unconfined Class2 Hydrate Accumulations in the Oceanic Subsurface” Report LBNL-57299, Lawrence Berkeley Natl. Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 2005.