Charting The Future Of Methane Hydrate Research In The United States

213 Pages·2004·3.72 MB·English

by  Committee to Review the Activities Authorized Under the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act

Committee to Review the Activities Authorized Under the Methane
Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000

Ocean Studies Board

Board on Earth Sciences and Resources

Division on Earth and Life Studies

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This study was supported by Contract/Grant No. DE-AM01-99PO80016
between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Cover art designed by Van Nguyen of the National Academies Press, and
includes a photograph of a burning methane hydrate taken by Liujuan Tang
of the University of Hawaii. This photograph is reprinted with permission of
Dr. Stephen Masutani, University of Hawaii, Hawaii Natural Energy
Institute, © 2003.

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Committee to Review the Activities Authorized
Under the Methane Hydrate Research and
1
Development Act of 2000

EARL H. DOYLE (Chair), Shell Oil (retired), Sugar Land, Texas
SCOTT R. DALLIMORE, Geological Survey of Canada, Sidney, British
Columbia
RANA A. FINE, University of Miami, Florida
AMOS M. NUR, Stanford University, California
MICHAEL E.Q. PILSON, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett
WILLIAM S. REEBURGH, University of California, Irvine
E. DENDY SLOAN JR., Colorado School of Mines, Golden
ANNE M. TRÉHU, Oregon State University, Corvallis

NRC Staff

JOANNE BINTZ, Study Director
JENNIFER MERRILL, Study Director
NANCY CAPUTO, Research Associate

The work of this committee was overseen by the Ocean Studies Board and the
Board on Earth Sciences and Resources of the National Research Council.

1
The committee and staff biographies are provided in Appendix A.
v
Ocean Studies Board

NANCY RABALAIS (Chair), Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium,
Chauvin
LEE G. ANDERSON, University of Delaware, Newark
WHITLOW AU, University of Hawaii at Manoa
ARTHUR BAGGEROER, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge
RICHARD B. DERISO, Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, La
Jolla, California
ROBERT B. DITTON, Texas A&M University, College Station
EARL DOYLE, Shell Oil (retired), Sugar Land, Texas
ROBERT DUCE, Texas A&M University, College Station
PAUL G. GAFFNEY II, National Defense University, Washington, D.C.
WAYNE R. GEYER, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
STANLEY R. HART, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
RALPH S. LEWIS, Connecticut Geological Survey, Hartford
WILLIAM F. MARCUSON III, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (retired),
Vicksburg, Mississippi
JULIAN P. MCCREARY JR., University of Hawaii, Honolulu
JACQUELINE MICHEL, Research Planning, Inc., Columbia, South
Carolina
JOAN OLTMAN-SHAY, Northwest Research Associates, Inc., Bellevue,
Washington
ROBERT T. PAINE, University of Washington, Seattle
SHIRLEY A. POMPONI, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Fort
Pierce, Florida
FRED N. SPIESS, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
DANIEL SUMAN, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science,
University of Miami, Florida

NRC Staff

SUSAN ROBERTS, Director
JENNIFER MERRILL, Senior Program Officer
DAN WALKER, Senior Program Officer
ALAN B. SIELEN, Visiting Scholar
ANDREAS SOHRE, Financial Associate
SHIREL SMITH, Administrative Associate
JODI BACHIM, Research Associate
NANCY CAPUTO, Research Associate
SARAH CAPOTE, Senior Program Assistant
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Board on Earth Sciences and Resources

GEORGE M. HORNBERGER (Chair), University of Virginia, Charlottesville
M. LEE ALLISON, Kansas Energy Council, Topeka
JILL BANFIELD, University of California, Berkeley
STEVEN R. BOHLEN, Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Washington, D.C.
ADAM M. DZIEWONSKI, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
RHEA GRAHAM, Pueblo of Sandia, Bernalillo, New Mexico
ROBYN HANNIGAN, Arkansas State University, State University
V. RAMA MURTHY, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
RAYMOND A. PRICE, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
MARK SCHAEFER, NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia
STEVEN M. STANLEY, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
BILLIE L. TURNER II, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
STEPHEN G. WELLS, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada
THOMAS J. WILBANKS, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee

NRC Staff

ANTHONY R. DE SOUZA, Director
PAUL M. CUTLER, Senior Program Officer
TAMARA L. DICKINSON, Senior Program Officer
DAVID A. FEARY, Senior Program Officer
ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer
RONALD F. ABLER, Senior Scholar
KRISTEN L. KRAPF, Program Officer
JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Administrative Associate
VERNA J. BOWEN, Administrative Associate
TANJA E. PILZAK, Research Associate
JAMES B. DAVIS, Program Assistant
AMANDA M. ROBERTS, Program Assistant

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Preface

Methane hydrate research took a great leap forward with the passage
of the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000 (P.L.
106-193; Appendix B). This act mandates several levels of coordination
for a program in methane hydrate research, including specific research
areas to be pursued and a method for scientific input and oversight
through an advisory panel and interagency coordinating team. In the past
four years, the Department of Energy (DOE) Methane Hydrate Research
and Development (R&D) Program has funded more than 30 projects
totaling more than $29 million. The projects encompass a wide array of
field and laboratory studies conducted in collaboration with academic
institutions, industry, and other federal agencies. Without congressional
reauthorization, Section 3 of the act, which defines the program, will
cease to be effective at the end of Fiscal Year 2005.
In addition to the mandates already mentioned, the act calls for the
National Research Council (NRC) to study progress made under the
program initiated by the act and to make recommendations for future
methane hydrate research and development needs. The Committee to
Review the Activities Authorized Under the Methane Hydrate Research
and Development Act of 2000 was convened for this purpose (Appendix
A). Committee members included representatives from both academia
and industry with a wide range of scientific and engineering expertise.
The committee determined that it could not address the task thoroughly
without reviewing the way in which program funds are awarded and the
level of scientific oversight within the program. The committee agreed
that it was outside the scope of the study to evaluate the scientific merit
of all 30 projects funded by the DOE Methane Hydrate R&D Program
and so chose to focus on two large international projects in which DOE
participated; three large-scale, industry-managed projects that are expected
to consume more than 60 percent of planned funding; and a few smaller-
scale, academic and laboratory projects. The committee also was charged
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