WP1: Gas Hydrate and Free Gas Reservoirs

About

One of the greatest uncertainties regarding the Arctic marine methane supply is the amount of frozen methane that lays hidden beneath the seabed. Equally important are the quantities of methane that have been, or will be, released – potentially impacting ocean life and our global climate.

In order to shed light on these mysteries, we rely heavily upon UiT’s research infrastructure Geosystem 3D Seismic Imaging (G3), a national facility for the acquisition of high-resolution 3D seismic data based on the P-Cable 3D seismic system. It allows for imaging in unprecedented detail when investigating complex and dynamic geosystems of gas hydrates, geofluids and geohazards in marine environments from the shelf to the deep sea. This data enables us to perform excellent reservoir mapping while measuring the amounts of frozen methane and free gas waiting beneath the sediment, as well as identifying any leakage from within.

Main questions:

• How much carbon is stored in today’s methane hydrate and free gas reservoirs in the Arctic and how much is susceptible to climate change?
• At what rates, by which means, and under which circumstances is methane expelled from sub-seabed reservoirs to the seabed?

Major aims:

• Identify and quantify gas hydrate and free gas reservoirs in the Arctic.
• Develop technologies for direct detection of gas hydrate in marine sediments.
• Understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of gas hydrate reservoirs under changing environmental conditions using high-resolution 3D seismic imaging, sediment drilling and sampling, as well as heat-flow measurements and modelling.
• Understand the genesis, mechanisms and governing geological processes of fluid flow.
• Acquire high-resolution 4D time-lapse data to quantify fluid flows through fractured systems.