Us Defence Dept Pulls Out Of Research Venture With Gail

The US sanctions have tarpedoed India's ambitious plans of meeting its energy needs by tapping its vast reserves of gas hydrates (of methane). The US defence department's Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has decided against launching a joint research programme on gas hydrates with the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).

Though the US laboratory had sent a draft agreement to GAIL for collaboration in the research programme in December 1997, it could not be signed because of bureaucratic delays at the Indian end. Then came the nuclear tests by India followed by US sanctions which prohibit any links by US defence firms with India. This is the first project in the Indian hydrocarbon sector to be affected by the sanctions.

An India-born NRL scientist Prof. Bhaktha Rath was at the forefront of bringing the NRL project to India under which technical support was to be provided by the US organisation and the actual work was to be performed by GAIL.

The NRL is among the handful organisations in the world which have developed technology for tapping this seemingly inexhaustible energy source. The Indian government may find it difficult to replace the US Naval Laboratory with a partner having similar expertise in the field.

The Indian government had recently decided to launch the first phase of the four-phase Rs 213-crore National Gas Hydrate Programme. The petroleum ministry has even held a series of meetings for deciding on the award of a contract for carrying out a seismic survey of the potential offshore areas using a special technology, called the deep towed acoustics geophysics system (DTAGS).

The Indian government had even set up an expert committee consisting of I L Budhiraja, advisor (technology), GAIL, Kuldeep Chandra, director (exploration), ONGC, and M N Bhatnagar, deputy general manager, DGH, to recommend a framework of the gas hydrate development programme to be undertaken in India which could ultimately lead to an investment decision for taking up commercial production of gas from gas hydrates.

Trapped gas hydrates are found in shallow ocean floors in the form of crystalline solids, called Calthrates. These consist of methane molecules bounded together by a cage of hydrogen, which can easily be retrieved and broken into hydrogen and methane, both of which can be used as an energy source.

Preliminary studies undertaken by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), the National Geographical Research Institute (NGRI) and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) have revealed the seismic evidence of the presence of gas hydrates both on the eastern and western offshore of India.

Though no authentic figure is available, it is being widely believed, even in official circles, that these reserves are sufficient to meet India's energy needs for another 400 years.

The available gas hydrate reserves the world over are said to be over a hundred times more than those of natural gas, its closest comparison.