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BP drills for burning ice on the Slope

by Sean Doogan
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007

Anchorage, Alaska - Scientists from the U.S. Energy Department are looking for ways to tap a new and unusual source of natural gas underneath the frozen ground near Prudhoe Bay.    

Gas hydrates -- methane gas trapped in ice -- were recently drilled by oil giant BP near its Milne Point well.

Have you ever seen ice burn?

It will, when the ice contains methane gas, and that simple fact has scientists from around the globe looking to Prudhoe Bay and a new test well drilled by BP.

"You would probably say it looked like snow," said Scott Digert.     

What to most may look like an especially hard-hitting snowball could be a source of energy for researchers at BP, including Digert, who is BP Alaska's Milne Point Resource manager.

"It's a gas molecule contained in an ice lattice, which provides quite a good storage for methane molecules inside a frozen zone," said Digert.     

Methane gas trapped in ice. And it burns.    

Scientists with the federal Energy Department paid $4.6 million to drill for the hot ice just below the surface of the Milne Point well, which is situated northwest of Prudhoe Bay.     

Methane will only stay in its solid or frozen state at extremely cold temperatures and under lots of pressure, both of which are abundant in Alaska's frozen grounds.   

Until recently, though, hydrates were seen as a drilling hazard.

"When you warm it up or you take the pressure off of it, it starts to thaw, basically. So you get free water and free gas, the methane, and so we try to control the release of that gas," Digert said.     

Now, scientists from around the world are waiting for pieces of this strange ice to conduct their own tests and determine whether Alaska's frozen grounds contain untapped, clean-burning energy.

BP says it found two separate layers of gas containing ice at Milne Point, each about 25-feet thick.   

Operators drilled it many times over to come up with about 400 feet of 3-inch diameter ice cores that will be sent via cryogenic packaging to labs around the world for further study.

But if gas hydrates contain clean burning energy, why hasn't any one done test drilling to find them on the North Slope before?

Methane needs extremely cold temperatures and pressure to stay in its solid form. BP says it new this form of methane was under the tundra all along.

On the surface, it is a flammable gas, and only recently have scientists determined how to safely bring the ice to surface without melting it first.