University of Texas GOM^2

The Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas is leading a multi-disciplinary study of methane hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico.  BOEM participates in an unfunded scientific advisory role for the GOM² project.  The goals of the project are to locate, drill, and sample methane hydrate deposits through multiple expeditions, and to analyze cores acquired and preserved at in-situ pressure to evaluate methane hydrate concentration, pore-water chemistry, thermodynamic state, and the material behavior of coarse-grained hydrate reservoirs.  The first leg of GOM² was conducted in May of 2017 in the Gulf of Mexico at Green Canyon 955, and successfully recovered multiple pressure cores from gas hydrate-bearing sand reservoirs.  More information is available at the University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics.