NIO scientists to join gas hydrates drilling studies

Panaji, May 5 (UNI) Scientists of the prestigious National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) here have joined the Indo-US expert team to study various aspects of drilling methane gas hydrates on board the vessel 'Joides Resolution'.

The studies before drilling would be carried out off Goa coast in Arabian Sea, Krishna-Godavari and Mahanadi Basins where explorations revealed enormous quantity of gas hydrates, which is a rich source of Methane gas.

According to estimates, India could meet its long-term energy reqirements if the rich potential of the gas hydrates with methane gas trapped inside the ice crystals in the seabed, could be fully exploited.

The NIO scientists, in collaboration with the US experts jointly conduct various studies on the drill corers on samples they collect on board, under the National Gas Hydrate Programme formed under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

This ''maiden venture opens new avenues to NIO having access to data from longcorers for multidisciplinary studies such as estimation of gas hydrate resources, thermogenic and biogenic nature of the trapped methane gas, their physical properties to ascertain the velocity structure and thickness and free gas within the marine sedmients,'' according to scientists.

The samples would also be helpful to assess the paleoclimatic conditons and impact of the release of methane to assess the hazards in the oceanbed after the exploitation. The results of the study would be published in due course, they added.

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