New Zealand Methane Hydrates May Soon Be Developed

A gas industry using frozen gas hydrates below the seabed off the East Coast could be developed in the near future thanks to rapid global technical developments.

George Hooper, executive director of the Centre for Advanced Engineering, told a recent Oil and Gas conference in Wellington that exploitation of methane hydrates could transform New Zealand’s energy market.

Hooper is lead author in a recent CAE report on an options analysis for commercial development of energy from offshore methane hydrates in New Zealand.

He said ’sweet spots’ containing high concentrations (about 4-10%) of methane hydrate found in sheets under the seabed off the East Coast may contain about 8.5 – 21 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of recoverable gas.

He said New Zealand’s methane hydrates endowment is very likely the largest in the world on a per capita basis and potentially one of the largest resources in the world.

Rigzone