The northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) features all necessary elements for the formation and preservation of subsurface gas hydrates, including a prolific petroleum system, a variety of structural and stratigraphic migration pathways that focus hydrocarbon migration into the shallow sediments, variable geothermal gradients that support a locally thick gas hydrate stability zone, and silt- and sand-rich

The University of Texas Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition (UT-GOM2-1) recovered cores at near in situ formation pressures from a gas hydrate reservoir composed of sandy silt and clayey silt beds in Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. The expedition results are synthesized and linked to other detailed analyses presented in this volume. Millimeter- to meter-scale beds of sandy silt

In May 2017, The University of Texas Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) drilled two adjacent holes in Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico as part of The University of Texas at Austin and US Department of Energy Deepwater Methane Hydrate Characterization and Scientific Assessment. Expedition operations included testing two configurations of a rotary

The base of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) is a critical interface, providing a first-order estimate of gas hydrate distribution. Sensitivity to thermobaric conditions makes its prediction challenging, particularly in the regions with dynamic pressure–temperature regime. In Green Canyon Block 955 (GC 955) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the seismically inferred base of the GHSZ is 450 m (1476

Gas hydrate in the Green Canyon area (Block 955) in the northern Gulf of Mexico is hosted by relatively clay-free silty levee deposits bounding a Pleistocene submarine channel. During the initial phase of channel development, the channel axis experienced sediment bypass while silty to sandy flanking levees formed. Development of high levees prompted gravitational collapse along normal faults dipping

We interpret the sedimentologic evolution of a deep-water channel-levee deposit in Green Canyon Block 955 (deep-water Gulf of Mexico) by analyzing hydrate-bearing pressure cores and nonpressure cores collected during The University of Texas-Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition that preserve remarkable sedimentary structures. The levee is composed of alternating beds of

We present results from 30 quantitative degassing experiments of pressure core sections collected during The University of Texas-Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition at Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico as part of The University of Texas at Austin–US Department of Energy Deepwater Methane Hydrate Characterization and Scientific Assessment. The hydrate

We explore the petrophysical behavior of the two interbedded lithofacies (sandy silt and clayey silt) that constitute the Green Canyon Block 955 hydrate reservoir in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico by performing experiments on reconstituted samples of the reservoir material. Sandy silts reconstituted to the in situ porosity have a permeability of 11.8 md (1.18 × 10−14 m2), which is similar to the intrinsic

We present a seismic- and well-based interpretation of a large leakage zone above the Scarborough gas field, Exmouth plateau, North West shelf of Australia. This leakage zone, well imaged on three-dimensional seismic data, extends over a region of 100 km2 (39 mi2), encompassing both the crest and flanks of the anticlinal trap, and is termed here as distributed crestal leakage. The present-day gas–water

The Gudong oil field offers a unique opportunity to characterize thin meander-belt sandstones in an area with a dense network of wells (100 wells per square kilometer or 259 wells per square mile). The goal of this study is to evaluate the evolution of subsurface meander-belt complexes through analysis of their overall stratigraphic architecture defined by the spatial distribution of sedimentary structures

The Lower Cretaceous Agrio Formation is a source rock considered to be a possible unconventional reservoir. However, no detailed microstructure characterization of this hydrocarbon play has been performed. An exceptional oil-prone level is determined through outcrop information, petrography, x-ray diffraction, geochemical analysis, and x-ray micro–computed tomography (µCT). Microscopic studies reveal

New organic–geochemical investigations of the Eocene Cambay Shale (Cambay Basin, India) from five wells and an open-cast lignite mine reveal that the total organic carbon ranges from 0.37 to 10.68 wt. %, with an average of 2.43 wt. %. The pseudo–Van Krevelen diagram, hydrogen index versus the maximum pyrolysis yield temperature (Tmax) crossplot, and the visual kerogen assessment of the Cambay Shale

The fluorescence characteristics of individual oil inclusions and molecular composition analysis of oil inclusions in 20 Eocene sandstone samples from the Dongying depression were used to assess the relationship between the fluorescence colors of the oil inclusions and their thermal maturity. The oil inclusions from the Shahejie Formation member III middle submember, member III lower submember, and

For more than 60 yr, the term “Barrow arch” has been used to describe a regional structural high beneath northern Alaska and the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas that is of chief importance to the area’s petroleum systems. However, there are multiple interpretations of what, precisely, constitutes the Barrow arch. For example, most, but not all, interpretations invoke the arch as a basement feature. Other

Structurally deformed coal (SDC) influences not only gas outbursts during coal mining but also coalbed methane (CBM) production. Different SDCs have different mechanical strengths and physical properties. The structurally constrained petrophysical and mechanical properties of a CBM reservoir from the southern Qinshui Basin (SQB), northern China, have been investigated by using a coal structure index

Pyrolysis experiments were performed on Green River and Monterey Formation kerogens (Types I and II, respectively) with and without calcite, illite, or montmorillonite at 300 degrees C for 2 to 1,000 hours under dry and hydrous conditions. Pyrolysis products were identified and quantified, and a material balance of product and reactants resulted. Significant differences were found in the products generated