The petroleum industry spends millions of dollars every year to combat the formation of hydrates-the solid, crystalline compounds that form from water and small molecules-that cause problems by plugging transmission lines and damaging equipment. They are a problem in the production, transmission and processing of natural gas, and it is even possible for them to form in the reservoir itself if the conditions are favorable. Natural Gas Hydrates is written for the field engineer working in the natural gas industry. This book explains how, when and where hydrates form, while providing the knowledge necessary to apply remedies in practical applications. New to the second edition, the use of new inhibitors: Kinetic Inhibitors and Anticoagulants and the topic of kinetics of hydrates. How fast do they form? How fast do they melt? New chapters on Hydrates in Nature, hydrates on the seafloor and a new section has also been added regarding the misconceptions about water dew points. Chapters on Hydrate Types and Formers, Computer Methods, Inhibiting Hydrate Formation with Chemicals, Dehydration of Natural Gas and Phase Diagrams Hydrate Dehydration of Natural Gas and Phase Diagrams have been expanded and updated along with the companion website. - Understand what gas hydrates are, how they form and what can be done to combat their formation - Avoid the same problems BP experienced with clogged pipelines - Presents the four most common approaches to evaluate hydrates: heat, depressurization, inhibitor chemicals, and dehydration

“Natural Gas Hydrates: Experimental Techniques and Their Applications” attempts to broadly integrate the most recent knowledge in the fields of hydrate experimental techniques in the laboratory. The book examines various experimental techniques in order to provide useful parameters for gas hydrate exploration and exploitation. It provides experimental techniques for gas hydrates, including the detection techniques, the thermo-physical properties, permeability and mechanical properties, geochemical abnormalities, stability and dissociation kinetics, exploitation conditions, as well as modern measurement technologies etc. This book will be of interest to experimental scientists who engage in gas hydrate experiments in the laboratory, and is also intended as a reference work for students concerned with gas hydrate research. Yuguang Ye is a distinguished professor of Experimental Geology at Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geological Survey, China. Professor Changling Liu works at the Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geological Survey, China.

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From a geological perspective, gas hydrates are an important feature of the shallow geosphere. If current estimates are correct, gas hydrates contain more potential fossil fuel energy than is present in conventional oil, gas and coal deposits, although it is uncertain how much of this can be exploited. They are also geological agents that affect the physical, geophysical and geochemical properties of sediments. Oceanic gas hydrates are increasingly recognized as a major potential hazard for the stability of offshore structures in various deep-water hydrocarbon provinces. The possibility also exists that a large release of methane from gas hydrates may have a significant impact on the radiative properties of the atmosphere and thus influence global climate: past, present and future. Following an introduction and overviews, this book covers analysis and modelling of hydrate formation; exploration strategy and reservoir evaluation; regional case studies; relevance to margin stability and climate change. Hydrate research informatiloln is presented from the USA, Russia, South Asia and the European Union.

This book is a companion to “Natural Gas Hydrate in Oceanic and Permafrost Environments” (Max, 2000, 2003), which is the first book on gas hydrate in this series. Although other gases can naturally form clathrate hydrates (referred to after as ‘hydrate’), we are concerned here only with hydrocarbon gases that form hydrates. The most important of these natural gases is methane. Whereas the first book is a general introduction to the subject of natural gas hydrate, this book focuses on the geology and geochemical controls of gas hydrate development and on gas extraction from naturally occurring hydrocarbon hydrates. This is the first broad treatment of gas hydrate as a natural resource within an economic geological framework. This book is written mainly to stand alone for brevity and to minimize duplication. Information in Max (2000; 2003) should also be consulted for completeness. Hydrate is a type of clathrate (Sloan, 1998) that is formed from a cage structure of water molecules in which gas molecules occupying void sites within the cages stabilize the structure through van der Waals or hydrogen bonding.

This is the first book published on the emerging research field of naturally occurring gas hydrates (focusing on methane hydrate) that is not primarily a physical chemistry textbook. This book is designed as a broad introduction to the field of hydrate science, demonstrating the significance of the hydrate cycle to energy resource potential, seafloor stability, and global climate and climate change, along with other issues. The best known hydrate localities are described, as are research and laboratory methods and results. The book consists of chapters grouped in related themes that present up-to-date information on methane hydrate. Each of the contributing authors is expert in hydrate science and most have been carrying out research in hydrate for a considerable time. Audience: This book will be an important source of information for marine geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, and petroleum geologists and regulators. It is also intended as a graduate-level textbook.

Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline substances that form a rigid cage of water molecules and entrap hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gas by hydrogen bonding. Natural gas hydrate is primarily composed of water and methane. These are solid, crystalline, ice-like substances found in permafrost areas and deepwater basins around the world. They naturally occur in the pore space of marine sediments, where appropriate high pressure and low temperature conditions exist in an adequate supply of gas (mainly methane). Gas hydrates are considered as a potential non conventional energy resource. Methane hydrates are also recognized as, an influence on offshore platform stability, a major factor in climate change contributing to global warming and a significant contribution to the ocean carbon cycle. The proposed book treats various geophysical techniques in order to quantify the gas hydrate reserves and their impact on environment. The primary goal of this book is to provide the state of art for gas hydrate exploration. The target audiences for this book are non-specialist from different branches of science, graduate students and researchers.

This book describes aspects of the natural gas hydrate (NGH) system that offer opportunities for the innovative application of existing technology and development of new technology that could dramatically lower the cost of NGH exploration and production. It is written for energy industry professsionals and those concerned with energy choices and efficiencies at a university graduate level. The NGH resource is compared with physical, environmental, and commercial aspects of other gas resources. The authors' theme is that natural gas can provide for base and peak load energy demands during the transition to and possibly within a renewable energy future. This is possibly the most useful book discussing fossil fuels that will be a reference for environmentalists and energy policy institutions, and for the environmental and energy community.

This book chiefly describes the theories and technologies for natural gas hydrate management in deepwater gas wells. It systematically explores the mechanisms of hydrate formation, migration, deposition and blockage in multiphase flow in gas-dominated systems; constructs a multiphase flow model of multi-component systems for wells that takes into account hydrate phase transition; reveals the influence of hydrate phase transition on multiphase flows, and puts forward a creative hydrate blockage management method based on hydrate blockage free window (HBFW), which enormously improves the hydrate prevention effect in deepwater wells. The book combines essential theories and industrial technology practice to facilitate a deeper understanding of approaches to and technologies for hydrate management in deepwater wells, and provides guidance on operation design. Accordingly, it represents a valuable reference guide for both researchers and graduate students working in oil and gas engineering, offshore oil and gas engineering, oil and gas storage and transportation engineering, as well as technical staff in the fields of deepwater oil and gas drilling, development, and flow assurance.