Applied Gas Hydrate Research Program (AGHRP)

Sponsors: the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), the Korean Institute for Gas Hydrate Research (KIGAM), U.S. Minerals Management Services (MMS)

The Applied Gas hydrate Research Program has now entered its seventh year as the longest-lived government-funded consortium doing research on the geology and geochemistry of gas hydrate. AGHRP made two major contributions in 2006. Fi rst, a paper is being published in Organic Geochemistry by Roger Sassen and Joseph Curiale (Chevron) announcing the first discovery of gas hydrate offshore Indonesia. The gas hydrate is unique because it contains both methane and ethane formed by microbial processes in an extreme environment for life in water about 2 kilometers deep. Second, in June, AGHRP-supported graduate student Woodong Jung helped di scover the first intact gas hydrate ever recovered offshore India.

Photograph shows the first sample of intact gas hydrate recovered from offshore India. The white gas hydrate nodule is ~ 5 cm ac ross and was found in deep-sea mud well beneath the seafloor offshore eastern India. Photograph courtesy of Woodong Jung.