Phase Field Theory Modeling of Methane Fluxes from Exposed Natural Gas Hydrate Reservoirs

Fluxes of methane from offshore natural gas hydrate into the oceans vary in intensity from massive bubble columns of natural gas all the way down to fluxes which are not visible within human eye resolution. The driving force for these fluxes is that methane hydrate is not stable towards nether minerals nor towards under saturated water. As such fluxes of methane from deep below hydrates zones may diffuse through fluid channels separating the hydrates from minerals surfaces and reach the seafloor. Additional hydrate fluxes from hydrates dissociating towards under saturated water will have different characteristics depending on the level of dynamics in the actual reservoirs. If the kinetic rate of hydrate dissociation is smaller than the mass transport rate of distributing released gas into the surrounding water through diffusion then hydrodynamics of bubble formation is not an issue and Phase Field Theory (PFT) simulations without hydrodynamics is expected to be adequate [1, 2]. In this work we present simulated results corresponding to thermodynamic conditions from a hydrate field offshore Norway and discuss these results with in situ observations. Observed fluxes are lower than what can be expected from hydrate dissociating and molecularly diffusing into the surrounding water. The PFT model was modified to account for the hydrodynamics. The modified model gave higher fluxes, but still lower than the observed in situ fluxes.