Oceanic NGH: Low Risk Resource in Fragile Arctic Environment

Abstract

Risk to the environment traditionally consists of an uncontrolled leakage of a gas or oil, resulting in pollution of the environment. Exploration, including drilling, and production of NGH carries an extremely low risk worldwide. The very low environmental risk is particularly important in the environmentally fragile Arctic environment. We suggest that the very low environmental risk factor may be key to the development of NGH in the Arctic Ocean region. When NGH is converted for production, only relatively pure methane and water are produced. NGH is stable within its reservoir and will not convert to its constituent gas and water unless the formation pressure is lowered or the temperature is raised sufficiently to introduce instability conditions. Thus, with careful drilling, the danger of gas venting is very low. In addition, during production the maximum gas pressures in the reservoir can be controlled, in strong contrast to conventional gas deposits in which very high pressures may exist from the outset. In addition, NGH deposits are not associated with liquid petroleum (oil), especially in the Arctic where predominantly biogenic NGH can be anticipated. Thus, even if a gas leak occurs, virtually no environmental hazard to macrofauna such as birds and Arctic mammals exists.