Explore Gas Hydrates

 Presence of Gas Hydrates in The Bay of Bengal

Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid, its building blocks consist of a gas molecule surrounded by a cage of water molecules. Each molecule of Gas hydrate contains up to 164 m3 of Methane (CH4). The natural gas, i.e., methane, is trapped in a very large amount in geological hydrate accumulations such as coarse-grained hydrate-bearing sediments. They are usually distributed in marine sediments. The accumulation of gas hydrates is highly dependent on the fluid migration including both the water and gas into the gas hydrate stability zone.

Large quantities of gas hydrates exist in the world. Scientists in the hydrocarbon field consider this form as the future source of natural gas. However no country in the world has developed technology to extract the gas from these hydrates. To meet the challenges of exploring gas hydrate is at a research stage in the world over.

Japan and Canada are two countries that have been working on the technology for a long time, and claim it would be possible to produce commercial gas from gas hydrates in the next 4-5 years.

Gas Hydrates

In deep offshore of Bengal basin (Swatch of no ground) have a  possibility of presence of gas Hydrates. Methane hydrates are  white, ice-like solids that consist of methane and water. The  methane molecules are enclosed in microscopic cages  composed  of water molecules. Methane gas is primarily formed  by  microorganisms that live in the deep sediment layers and  slowly  convert organic substances to methane. These organic  materials  are the remains of plankton that lived in the  sea/ocean long ago,  sank to the sea floor, and were finally  incorporated into the  sediments. Methane hydrates are only  stable under pressures in excess of 35 bar and at low  temperatures. The sea floor is thus an ideal location for their formation: the bottom waters of sea and the deep seabed are almost uniformly cold, with temperatures from 0 to 4 degrees Celsius.

In methane hydrates, the methane gas molecules are tightly enclosed in cages composed of water molecules. Increasing temperatures render the cages unstable, the gas escapes.

India is searching for gas hydrates in the Bay of Bengal, the presence of significant quantities of Gas Hydrate has been established in the Krishna-Godavari basin, Mahanadi and Andaman basins. The fresh reserves are estimated to be around 134 trillion cubic feet (TCF), about one-third of the gas reserves of the United States, which is the largest producer of natural gas in the world. Such a huge quantity of gas can turn India's fortunes in the future, by making the country self-sufficient in the energy sector, which currently imports 80% of its consumption requirements.