Study of the Natural Gas Hydrate 'Trap Zone' and the Methane Hydrate Potential in the Sverdrup Basin, Canada

The methane hydrate stability zone beneath Sverdrup Basin has developed to a depth of 2 km underneath the Canadian Arctic Islands and 1 km below sea level under the deepest part of the inter-island sea channels. It is not, however, a continuous zone. Methane hydrates are detected in this zone, but the gas hydrate/free gas contact occurs rarely. Interpretation of well logs indicate that methane hydrate occurs within the methane stability zone in 57 of 150 analyzed wells. Fourteen wells show the methane hydrate/free gas contact. Analysis of the distribution of methane hydrate and hydrate/gas contact occurrences with respect to the present methane hydrate stability zone indicate that, in most instances, the detected methane hydrate occurs well above the base of methane hydrate stability. This relationship suggests that these methane hydrates were formed in shallower strata than expected with respect to the present hydrate stability zone from methane gases which migrated upward into hydrate trap zones. Presently, only a small proportion of gas hydrate occurrences occur in close proximity to the base of predicted methane hydrate stability. The association of the majority of detected hydrates with deeply buried hydrocarbon discoveries, mostly conventional natural gas accumulations, or mapped seismic closures, some of which are dry, located in structures in western and central Sverdrup Basin, indicate the concurring relationship of hydrate occurrence with areas of high heat flow. Either present-day or paleo-high heat flows are relevant. Twenty-three hydrate occurrences coincide directly with underlying conventional hydrocarbon accumulations. Other gas hydrate occurrences are associated with structures filled with water with evidence of precursor hydrocarbons that were lost because of upward leakage