The United States Geological Survey, together with the government of India and the government of Japan made a discovery of large, highly enriched accumulations of natural gas hydrate in the Bay of Bengal.
The U.S. scientific agency said in its report this is the first discovery of its kind in the Indian Ocean that has the potential to be producible.
“This discovery is the result of the most comprehensive gas hydrate field venture in the world to date, made up of scientists from India, Japan and the United States,” according to USGS.
The international team of scientists was led by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India on behalf of the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas India, in cooperation with the USGS, the Japanese Drilling Company, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
The group conducted ocean drilling, conventional sediment coring, pressure coring, downhole logging and analytical activities to assess the geologic occurrence, regional context and characteristics of gas hydrate deposits in the offshore of India.
The gas hydrate discovered during the expedition are located in coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and is made up of a sand-rich, gas-hydrate-bearing fan and channel-levee gas hydrate prospects, USGS said.
During the research, a total of 42 holes were completed at water depths ranging from 1,519 to 2,815 meters.
The research will now focus on production testing in these sand reservoirs to determine if natural gas production is practical and economic.