Five natural gas projects valued at more than $7 million willget partial funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, which willspend $4.7 million to fund innovations in the industry. Theprojects include a 3D seismic imaging study on deep water hydratesin the Gulf of Mexico and another on tools that will drill inarctic conditions.

The University of Texas at Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geologyplans to spend two years studying the use of multi-component, 3Dseismic imaging on hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico. The study willfocus on how hydrates and rock types are distributed throughsediments and how the sediments are bound together, which couldenhance safety in producing hydrate gas in deepwater projects. DOEwill pay $700,000 of the $880,000 project cost.

Another project, headed up by NANA Development Corp. ofAnchorage, AK, will design tools, techniques and algorithms todrill slim-hole wells under arctic conditions. The idea is todevelop a concept design for a mobile rig that eventually coulddrill gas wells to fuel remote Alaskan villages. This two-yearproject, which will cost $1.06 million, will receive $440,000 fromDOE.

A salt cavern storage project, field tested by Respec Co. ofRapid City, SD, will work on technology to improve the volume ofgas that may be extracted efficiently and economically. The companyalready has adapted a mathematical model to dispose of nuclearwaste in salt domes, and now will use this to determine the minimumpressure for storage caverns. The model will be tested at two BayGas Storage Co. caverns near Mobile, AL.

“Even modest improvements in storage capacity efficiencies couldincrease the amount of working gas capacity in existing saltcaverns,” said DOE in a statement.

Respec Co. estimates that if the technique works, it couldprovide as much as 13 Bcf of additional working gas capacity fromsalt dome sites. Respec said there are 29 U.S. salt dome sites withabout 125 Bcf of capacity. This project is expected to last 22months, and DOE will pay $277,000 of the total $374,000 total cost.

Pennsylvania State and the University of Tulsa plan to design anindustry-driven stripper gas well consortium to identify and fundresearch for reservoir remediation, wellbore cleanup and surfacesystem upgrades. DOE will provide $3 million for this project, andthe universities will kick in $1.3 million over three years.

The fifth project, also undertaken by Penn State, will haveuniversity researchers and Dennis Tool Co. of Houston developing amicrowave sintering process to enhance the durability ofcomposition-grade drill bit materials formed from diamondcomposites, tungsten carbide and other metals. DOE estimates theprocess would take one-tenth the time of conventional bondingmethods, and thus produce bits that would wear longer and performup to 30% better than conventional parts.

DOE will pay about half, or $323,000, of the $646,000 two-yearproject.

Carolyn Davis, Houston

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