Modeling of rising methane bubbles during production leaks from the gas hydrate sites of India

ABSTRACT

Natural gas hydrates is considered as a strategic unconventional clean hydrocarbon resource in the energy sector. Understanding the behavior of the rising methane gas bubbles during production leaks from the deep marine gas hydrate reservoirs well head is essential for environmental impact studies and to design environmental monitoring systems. Numerical model for quantitatively characterizing the vertical dissolution pattern of the wellhead released methane gas bubbles is analyzed for three potential gas hydrate locations in India. Simulation results indicate that the methane bubbles with diameter of 10 mm can transport methane gas till 650, 800, and 750 m from the seabed in the Krishna–Godavari(KG), Mahanadi and Andaman basins respectively. Results brought out that potential well head damage during methane hydrate production at 1050 m water depth could release up to 28 m³ of methane gas, in which 50% of the molar mass shall get dissolved within 40 m of water column from the seafloor.

KEYWORDS:

• Bubbles
• dissolution
• hydrates
• methane

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support extended by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, in funding this research.