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Weird science
Japanese have great hopes for Tuk hydrates by Ian Elliot
TUKTOYAKTUK (Feb 20/98) - A cutting-edge drilling program being carried out near Tuktoyaktuk this month could help supply Japan with energy in the future.
A consortium of Japanese corporations known as Japex, in co-operation with
the Geological Survey of Canada, has begun drilling more than 1,000 metres
into the permafrost on the northwest shore of Richard's Island. They are in
search of icy crystals of methane hydrate, which are an odd form of
highly-compressed natural gas bound together by water.
The Japanese are interested in the substance because it is
so compressed -- one litre of hydrates in the ground expands to 164 litres
of methane gas and less than a litre of water. Until now, the difficulty
and expense of getting the hydrates to the surface meant they were ignored
in favor of more conventional reserves.
Hydrates are also found in great quantities off the shore
of Japan, and the companies figure if they can recover them efficiently
here, they can do the same back home.
About 50 drillers, technicians and scientists are working
on the rig, which is mounted on the site of the Mallik L-38 test well
drilled by Imperial Oil in 1972 and which sits atop one of the richest
hydrate reserves in the world. Among the equipment being tested are new
coring systems that can deliver the temperature- and pressure-sensitive
hydrates to the surface.
"We see the hydrates as a future natural gas source for
Japan," said Masayuki Imazato, the assistant director of the drilling
laboratory of the Japan National Oil Corporation's research centre.
The hydrates are the focus of an intensive five-year
research and development program in Japan and the Mallik well is a critical
testing ground for the consortium, he said, as it will indicate whether
they can sink a well off Japan in the next two years and begin recovering
the hydrates there.
Japan is the second-largest user of energy in the world but
imports almost 100 per cent of its petroleum and 95 per cent of its natural
gas from other countries. The offshore hydrate reserves hold promise of
changing that, he said.
"The Japanese government must concentrate on it," he said.
Scott Dallimore of the GSC said the work is "truly
groundbreaking" as it involves a very unusual form of natural gas.
"It's deep, and we don't understand the properties of it,"
he said.
The GSC, which has been doing research in the Delta for
decades, is using the well to collect research on the hydrates and the
permafrost cores. More than a dozen researchers in Inuvik lab will test
core samples for such things as evidence of climate change.
"The Inuvik Research Centre is the key," said Dallimore.
"We couldn't do it without them." |