Laboratory measurements on core-scale sediment/hydrate samples to predice reservoir behavior

Measurements on hydrate-bearing laboratory and field samples are necessary in order to provide realistic bounds on parameters used in numerically modeling the production of natural gas from hydrate-bearing reservoirs. The needed parameters include thermal conductivity, permeability, relative permeability-saturation(s) relationships, and capillary pressure-saturation(s) relationships. We have developed a technique to make hydrate-bearing samples ranging in scale from core plug-size to core-size in the laboratory to facilitate making these measurements. In addition to pressure and temperature measurements, we use x-ray computed tomography scanning to provide high-resolution data providing insights on processes occurring in our samples. Several methods are available to make gas hydrates in the laboratory, and we expect that the method used to make the hydrate will impact the behavior of the hydrate sample, and the parameters measured