Drilling for gas hydrates

BP Exploration (Alaska) and partners have successfully drilled a research well on Alaska’s North Slope to collect samples and gather knowledge about gas hydrate. Gas hydrate has been identified as a potential long-term unconventional gas energy resource.

The stratigraphic test well enabled BP and the US Department of Energy to gather core, log, reservoir performance and fluid data from an ice pad location at Milne Point. The drilling began on February 3. Field teams began pulling hydrate core samples on February 10. Extensive well logging and wireline formation testing was completed between February 14-18.

This test well is part of the ongoing research partnership between BP and the Department of Energy, which began in 2002.

Known deposits of methane hydrate in Alaska and other parts of the world are enormous. However, the challenge is finding the technology to unlock the energy, to separate the natural gas from the solid gas-water-ice "clathrate" in which it occurs.