Semi-quantitative gas hydrate assessment from petroleum industry well logs in the northern Gulf of Mexico

The northern Gulf of Mexico has been a major location for exploration of oil and natural gas resources for decades. We have used the rich data of existing, publicly available petroleum industry well logs to identify potential occurrences of natural gas hydrate in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Our data set contains 798 wells with resistivity and gamma ray well log data in the gas hydrate stability zone - 788 wells from the petroleum industry and 10 wells with data collected for the purposes of scientific drilling. Based on an increase in resistivity of 0.5 Ωm or greater relative to the interpreted resistivity of brine-saturated sediment, we found evidence consistent with gas hydrate occurrences in 124 wells. We have built a data set of the analyzed wells that includes information such as the well surface location, depth intervals and resistivity of potential gas hydrate accumulations. Moreover, we have categorized the overall quality of the potential gas hydrate accumulations, based on thickness of the accumulation and the resistivity log increase. Our data set provides a wide perspective on the potential spatial distribution of gas hydrate. For example, we find subsurface gas hydrate of higher quality five to eight times more frequently along the rims of mini-basins and over salt ridges than inside mini-basins in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We provide the included data set as a resource for future gas hydrate research and prospecting in the area.