This site provides links to the reports on the Initial Scientific Results of the 2009 Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrates Joint Industry Project (the "JIP") Leg II logging-while-drilling program. The JIP is cooperative research program conducted by an international consortium of energy companies under the management of Chevron in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. JIP Leg II was designed to build upon prior knowledge gained by the JIP by investigating the occurrence of gas hydrates in sandy sediments in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The expedition deployed an advanced logging-while-drilling tool string to study more than 15,000 feet of sedimentary section in seven wells located at three sites. Additional background information on the JIP can be found here.
These Initial Reports include overviews of the technical findings, operational experiences and lessons learned, and LWD data collections and analysis methods. Detailed results are provided for each of the sites visited, including separate reports on the geologic-geophysical findings and the LWD results. In addition, reports on the pre-drill evaluation of each site are included.
These reports were prepared to make information relevant to JIP Leg II available to the scientific community and the general public as soon as possible. Please note as you access these reports that the data and preliminary results represent work very much still in progress. Studies to calibrate pre-drill interpretation with actual findings and to fully investigate the enormous volume of well log data acquired are ongoing.
The GOM JIP Leg II Science Team wishes to thank the JIP executive board and the U.S. Department of Energy for enabling our participation in this project. Many thanks also to the many groups and individuals that contributed to the selection and review of the drill sites, and the execution of the program in the field:
The JIP is committed to steering technology advances through collaborative research so that a better understanding is achieved of the safety hazards involved in drilling and producing oil and gas through hydrate containing sediments in deepwater GOM. The JIP Leg II Contributors are as follows:
JIP Executive Board
Site Hazards, Operational Planning
Site Selection Team
Onboard Science Team
We also wish to thank WesternGeco and CGG Veritas for kind permission to display seismic data from the drill sites. Please note that all interpretations posted upon these images are preliminary, and is the work of the Science Team members: Tim Collett (USGS), Ray Boswell (US DOE/NETL), Gilles Guerin, Stefan Mrozewski, Ann Cook (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory), Matt Frye, Bill Shedd, Rebecca Dufrene, Paul Godfriaux (MMS), and Dan McConnell (AOA Geophysics).
