India develops machine to help extract gas from under ocean floor

India has been known to possess untapped reservoirs of gas hydrates on its coasts. Globally,the estimated gas hydrate reserves are twice that of the known oil and gas reserves.

“The technology to exploit the gas hydrate is still not found. But just below the gas hydrates,there are abundant reserves of free gas,” said Prof Harsh K Gupta,Former Secretary to the Government of India,Department of Ocean Development.

But the extraction of the free gas below the hydrates is not economically feasible,said Gupta,who is serving the National Geographical Research Institute,Hyderabad,and was in town to deliver the 14th Jubliee Lecture on the occasion of foundation day of Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany.

The depth of ocean is between 1500 to 2000 meters and the gas hydrate is found some 100 meters below the ocean bed.

“This means drilling all the way down and drills for such work costs around $ 20 to 30 million,” he said. “Ten such drills will mean that commercial extraction of the resource would surpass any conceivable budget.”

The submersible automated coring machine,however,can be lowered to the ocean bed and the machine can operate from there. “We have assembled the machine recently and have tried it on a 100 meter solid block of cement for test,” he said.

One cubic meter of gas hydrate,when converted,gives 164 cubic meters of gas. “Thus,if 15 per cent of the total gas hydrates of the world is exploited,it will solve the world’s energy problem for the next 200 years,” said Gupta in his lecture.

Japan,South Korea,China,Canada and US are the other countries in the race to develop the technology to exploit gas hydrates.

In the exploration project Expedition 01,11 sites on the east coast were found to have potentials for commercial exploitation. Two areas which have the most potential are Krishna Godavari basin and delta.

“We will use the automated coring machine,which will take samples and confirm that the gas reserve is present at the site. Then,we can put in a drilling machine from the ocean surface and extract the free gas by drilling through the hydrated gas,” he said. “We expect to exploit the free gas commercially in the next five years.”